


Walk in the Dark

by flowerslut



Series: Call of the Night [3]
Category: Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: F/M, Gen, Minor Original Character(s), Sequel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:09:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 38,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26230930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flowerslut/pseuds/flowerslut
Summary: With a world in mourning, a return to normalcy is nothing more than a fantasy. Trust betrayed and thousands gone, there are whispers of a movement stirring; and it has the potential to upend life as everyone knows it.Meanwhile, Alice seeks to uncover her own mysterious origins, leading her down a dangerous path. Deception runs rampant, and secrets can’t be kept forever. Everything is shifting, and Alice can’t find her footing.Sequel to Call of the Night
Relationships: Alice Cullen/Jasper Hale, Carlisle Cullen/Esme Cullen, Edward Cullen/Bella Swan, Emmett Cullen/Rosalie Hale
Series: Call of the Night [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1329840
Comments: 58
Kudos: 40





	1. Chapter 1

She eyed the clock with contempt as she contemplated her next decision.

She was already past the ‘point-of-no-return’ in which the day would fall exactly how she’d set it. But that only covered the _general_ happenings.

What Rosalie would say to her exactly—and how furious on a scale from one to ten she would be—was still up in the air.

What wasn’t undecided, was that in ruining Rosalie’s day, and souring her own reputation amongst a boardroom of Lieutenants, Alice had spared herself a morning of torment. And spared Carlisle from having to answer a series of tricky questions on her behalf while in her presence.

Now that she would miss the first half of the meeting, Carlisle could provide whatever answers he deemed necessary to the pair of irritable New England men who wanted to know more about Alice’s past.

Alice let her foot fall from the gas pedal, allowing the car to slow down ever-so-slightly. Quickly deciding that it wasn’t slow enough, she merged over a few lanes and let her speed fall by a few more miles per hour.

In her defense, she had already _told_ her fellow Protectors that she would be running late. But she’d also done that before even truly knowing why. It had come as a bit of a shock to herself when she realized it was going to be by her own creation, and for the purpose of making _her_ day a bit easier.

And even knowing that the meeting would go smoother with her delay, she still felt bad about abandoning Rosalie and Carlisle to handle it. If they saw through her rouse, she would have to find an adequate way at assuring them that it had been _imperative_ that she showed up late.

(Really, she just didn’t want to go through any more grilling in a business setting. She’d had enough of that the past few months.)

She’d missed her exit a few minutes prior and was currently driving through the middle of Boston, halfway sightseeing and halfway keeping her mind’s eye on the situation at the edge of the city, where two dozen people were irritably going through report summaries and budget discussion.

Alice eyed the clock again. The meeting had begun forty minutes ago.

Rosalie was going to kill her.

Not immediately, no. Not with so many witnesses present. But, perhaps later on in the day, after they found some empty corner of the center, Alice was going to get an absolute _earful_. As the blonde woman contemplated how she’d phrase their inevitable encounter Alice caught glimpses of what that future entailed…

Seeing as how none of these conversations were anything she actually wanted to take part in, Alice let her foot pull back off the gas pedal a little bit more, letting the car slow down a smidge further.

Yikes. Nope. Alice was playing with fire now, she realized, as the visions morphed. She was toying with Rosalie’s patience a dangerous amount today, already.

Alice huffed and flicked her turn signal on, pressing further down on the pedal and speeding forward. Ten minutes later she was driving in the other direction down I-90, and as she passed through the tunnel she let herself sneak a few more glances at what she was currently heading for.

There were currently twenty-two irritated, anxious people—human and vampire both—filling the boardroom. It seemed they had barely enough room to fit them all, despite the size and length of the room and the table.

At the end of it, next to Carlisle’s seat, was an empty chair. One that met more glances and glares than was likely normal.

Shit.

Picking up the pace a little more Alice cursed when she realized she was going to get caught at the next several stoplights as she drove toward the edge of the city.

She was fifty-two minutes late at this point, and had all-but-sealed her fate away.

Yep. Rosalie was _so_ going to kill her.

After a few minutes she made a sharp right, barely making it under a yellow light before she was slowing down to avoid crashing though the gates. Quickly, she lowered her window, shooting the woman behind the window of the gatehouse a quick grin as she extended her short arm, showing the woman her credentials.

Surely, she didn’t need to do it, but it was protocol. And Alice had been trying hard to learn how to do things the right way instead of the easy way. And her visions always tempted her with doing things the easy way, that was for sure.

The woman, an older white-haired human, didn’t bat an eyelash at her presence and simply buzzed her through.

Despite it being her first time in Boston, and at that center specifically, she already knew exactly where to go. She drove through campus for a couple minutes before parking her rental car outside of the building she knew her colleagues were in.

Alice almost forgot to lock the car as she rushed toward the entrance. It was something small and white and was, what Rosalie would likely say, sorely lacking underneath the hood.

It was her second rental car that she’d gotten in the past few weeks—the first one had actually been stolen. Bella had laughed herself silly when she and Alice had walked out of what remained of the currently shut-down center in Baltimore and found the spot they’d left the car (around the corner from the nearly-destroyed campus) entirely bare.

Apparently, she’d quickly learned that day, leaving the keys inside the car was a no-no.

Walking briskly through the front door she had to repress a laugh when she startled the receptionist; the man went from staring at his phone to on his feet in a blink of an eye.

Alice smiled politely, but didn’t pause. “Which room?”

“I—um, room 2-A.”

“Second floor?”

“I—yes ma’am.”

She flashed a thankful smile, nodding down to his phone. “I won’t tell.” She winked and was down and off the hallway. Sure, she could’ve reprimanded the man, but truthfully this meeting was the most inhabited this center had been in months now.

Most centers were like that, now. Ghost towns. She couldn’t fault the guy for likely being bored out of his mind; manning a desk that likely received two or three calls per day.

She opted for the stairs, just so she could arrive a few seconds earlier. Besides, when the inhabitants of board room 2-A heard her hurried hustle from the stairwell, it would play into her ‘accidentally late and very apologetic’ piece a bit further.

Turning the handle to the door, she braced herself as she pushed her way in.

Immediately, all eyes were on her.

Okay. Showtime.

“Sorry I’m late,” she smiled bashfully, closing the door and promptly walking down toward the end of the table. She smiled at everyone as she passed them, meeting more shocked glances than angry ones, surprisingly enough. Her size came in handy in that regard.

Most people had a vague idea of how short she was due to the news, but she was learning the more she met people that her size caught them off guard. They could hardly believe a stick-thin woman under five feet tall had ended the deadliest war in vampire history.

It made her wonder if they knew that Maria hadn’t been much bigger.

Underestimations (or perhaps, overestimations) aside, Alice reluctantly met Carlisle’s tired gaze, and then Rosalie’s irritable glare. She would apologize later profusely. And then hope they wouldn’t ask her what had made her late.

She was still trying to get a hang of the whole ‘lying for the greater good’ thing she had adopted as of late.

Carlisle quickly introduced her to the rest of the room, and as she stared at the inhabitants she couldn’t help but notice that _most_ of them were human. That was a slight surprise. A majority of the humans stared at her with a mixture of confusion and surprise (at her stature, she was sure) but the rest regarded her coldly.

Alice knew it was due to the fact that they had just breached the topic of now having more finalized casualty reports when she’d opened the door. She was almost regretful that she’d missed the portion of the meeting discussing the local economic strains. At least it would’ve steadily lead into a topic this heavy instead of sending her catapulting directly into it.

Rosalie and a lieutenant were going back and forth, discussing and doing the mental math on total number of injuries, deaths, and ongoing disappearances. But despite the seriousness of the topic, a small handful of people kept their eyes glued to Alice.

It was easy to know what they were thinking; she didn’t need to be Edward.

Two days prior, the New York Times had published a deep-dive think-piece fully dedicated to her. Thankfully, it had missed a few facts—no mental hospital was mentioned and her early- _early_ years had been overlooked—but it had further fueled an already-prevalent nation-wide search for answers. And for justice.

And when an editorial from one of the largest publications in the continent pinned you as the one thing lying between your boyfriend and his rightful execution, it directed a lot of ire your way.

Up until that point, Alice had still been passively enjoying the way the general public had flocked to her in the weeks and months following the war’s end. She’d been lauded as a hero, and celebrated despite the loss of life.

Now, over six months later, the people’s infatuation and appreciation was slowly dying, and the trauma of last summer’s events were wreaking havoc on the people.

It was understandable. Edward had warned her when people’s minds had begun to change about her, so she’d been given adequate time to adjust her actions in preparation. But still, it kind of sucked.

“If you exclude all missing person’s reports prior to the nineteenth of August we’re left with only a two percent decrease in overall numbers.” Rosalie flipped between three different papers as she did the math, her golden eyes moving quickly as she read. Her hair was pulled back tight in a bun, her brown lipstick complementing the color of her nails.

One of the older vampires, a man who had been alternating between glaring at Rosalie and glaring at Alice, piped up once more. “Wouldn’t it be wise to leave that two percent in? After all, until we learn for sure there’s no way to count them out as Radical casualties.”

“I think two percent more than adequately accounts for unrelated disappearances, Lieutenant.” She opened a separate folder as she spoke. “In fact, the number of disappearances was at an all-time low prior to August. Tacking that number onto our report would be inappropriate.”

“Even vampire disappearances—”

Rosalie read out loud, cutting off his escalating tirade. “From the DVA, last summer: ’On July 1st, the Boston metropolitan area was pleased to, for the second year in a row, announce themselves as one of only four areas in the Americas where vampire resident’s participation in their annual census was at one-hundred percent.” She lifted her head from the photo-copied document and shot him a dull look. “There is no conspiracy here, Lieutenant. The defectors amongst these walls were previously law-abiding citizens.”

It wasn’t a controversial statement—after all, virtually all of Maria’s in-house recruits had been high-ranking, well-liked, law-abiding vampires—but even Alice knew how much of a painful reminder that was.

Sensing this too, Carlisle took the reigns then, reaching for the folder on top and reading clearly.

“The only number we have that isn’t finalized is that one. With our total missing still close two two-hundred. One-ninety-eight, to be exact. But that’s the lowest number I have for you.” Alice had to resist the urge to reach out and place a reassuring hand on his shoulder. She knew this was difficult for him.

As impossible of an idea as it was, Alice was sure that every time the death toll climbed, she was sure Carlisle aged one more day.

“Human casualties capped at six-hundred and eleven, with less than one percent currently being held at newborn centers. Vampire casualties,” he paused then, swallowing, “in the metropolitan area alone, are at a finalized 25,620 with a death toll of 24,725.”

Alice blinked over at him. She had not been expecting that high of a number.

Boston’s vampire population had only _been_ barely 31,000 this time last year.

The sound of a chair scooting back brought everyone’s attention toward the end of the table, where they all watched silently as a young man placed an arm over his eyes and led himself from the room. The second the door closed behind him, they could hear a sob break loose as he hurried down the hallway.

Alice felt like her heart was going to drop into her stomach.

Another vampire muttered a quick apology as they followed after the distraught man.

That’s when Alice took note of the lack of credentials on half of the vampires in the room. This wasn’t a meeting with the highest ranking Boston lieutenants…

It was just all they had left.

There were a few human politicians that Alice vaguely recognized from local news reports, but other than that, this small group was all the leadership this city had left.

“Our main priority now, is continuing the extension we have on resources for the next-of-kin of deceased government employees, regardless of their own status. But,” again, a sigh, “the southern Center’s last day of operation will be Friday, effective immediately.”

The rumble through the room was unanimously disapproving.

“Funds have not been reduced,” Carlisle reminded them all over the chattering, “but adjusted for the needs of the community.”

“Three of our major suppliers worked from the edge of town,” a woman with a stern frown chimed in. Suppliers of blood, she meant. “Two of them are closed and the third has cut it’s hours massively due to inflated prices and low demand. We’re still struggling on our day-to-day, Carlisle,” she spoke familiarly, but not disrespectfully. “Shutting down buildings won’t help us right now.”

“But reallocating funds will,” he replied kindly. “We are not a authoritarian power; we can not force them to remain open but we can incentivize them. Even still,” he hesitated, “it needs further approval before anything is enacted. In the meantime,” he reached into a suitcase on the table in front of him and retrieved a crisp document. Clicking a pen, he began to write quickly. “We can open a state-run bank temporarily.”

“Where?’ The man from before asked, still fixing the trio of Protectors with hard, unwelcome glances.

“Here,” and clicking the pen, he re-pocketed it.

“And just grant civilians access to the campus?” A human politician chimed in, seeming baffled by the idea. “Surely, we can supply a building in a less restricted area.”

“Then please, try to,” Carlisle tried forcing a smile, but Alice couldn’t help but notice how it looked decidedly like a grimace. “You’ll need to get it approved through the state; a local ordinance won’t cover this. In the meantime, convert the cafeteria into a public-friendly space. Enact hours of operation; as many as you can manage, but don’t waste too much manpower on security measures.” The woman simply nodded, turning and whispering to the younger human man at her side. He wrote a few things on a yellow note pad. “I apologize,” Carlisle looked at the rest of the room then. “I can not show up and fix all of your problems. None of us can,” he gestured to the women at his sides. “It has to be a collective effort in order to enact adequate levels of change that are sustainable for the remaining population of your city. But right now, our power barely extends beyond these campuses.”

Someone in the room muttered something that sounded like “maddening” and Alice couldn’t help but agree.

It was becoming more and more clear every day that back in the beginning, when Carlisle and Esme had worked along human politicians and figureheads in order to fully sort out the extent of their jurisdiction and what they would have control over, they had been given truly a bare minimum amount of power. Enough to keep their own people in check.

But not enough to protect them.

The meeting ended soon after that. Alice hung back with Carlisle and Rosalie as the room emptied.

Still, from the hallway, she couldn’t help but overhear two humans walking toward the elevators.

“ _I_ wasn’t about to be the one to ask.”

“Yeah, but now we lost our shot.”

“I don’t think asking whether they’ll execute Brandon’s boyfriend while she’s sitting right there is a wise call.”

“I knew I should’ve said something earlier, before she showed up. I can’t believe they’re really just letting everything slide, I—” the ding of the elevator doors closing indicated their true departure.

Alice turned her attention to Carlisle the same moment he pulled his eyes from the same direction. “Sorry,” was all she could bring herself to say.

“Don’t even apologize,” Rosalie spoke coolly, but Alice could just _tell_ her temper was simmering under the surface. She walked away to thank a few of the human politicians, but Alice knew she’d be back when the room was fully empty and _then_ she’d be in for it.

“It’s good to see you,” Carlisle squeezed her shoulder and Alice had to refrain from hugging him outright. It was difficult to have to reserve her affections for more private settings, and she very much disliked having to be professional with people she loved so deeply, but she had an image to maintain.

Well, an image to develop, really. One that was her own, and not the factor of everything happening around her.

That was one of the reason’s she wasn’t too distraught over current events. The people had been intrigued by her when she’d taken her oath. They’d become entranced with her in the build-up to the war and she’d become a household name between the media and pop culture’s fascination with her. Then they’d become her biggest fans when the war had ended and she’d been revealed as the ‘hero’ of the final battle.

(She still hated that description fiercely, but there was nothing to be done about it.)

Now that the illusion of her perfection was fading in the eyes of the media, they were reacting appropriately. Understandably.

It was her perfect opportunity to take her own image in her hands. And if her vague visions were of any help, it was just going to take a little while to get it done.

Lifting her hand she placed it on top of Carlisle’s and squeezed it. “I missed you.” It had been almost six weeks since she’d seen him last. In fact, the main reason she hadn’t cancelled her appearance today entirely was so she could see him.

And as irresponsible as it seemed, she was going to take any chance she could get to see her loved ones.

“Give me three good reasons I shouldn’t eviscerate you right now.”

Carlisle sighed as Rosalie approached them, the board room now fully empty except for them. “Rosalie—”

“No, she needs to know how serious this is. How important it was that she was here today.”

“I’m _sorry_ ,” Alice apologized again, anyways. “I know it’s valuable training but—”

“But _what?!_ Alice, I’ve been doing enough damage control for you the past couple of days. The least you could do is show up.”

Damnit.

Alice wriggled in place, hating the way Rosalie was right. “I know,” was all she could say, bowing her head like a child being scolded. And really, that’s what it felt like.

Rosalie sighed and then looked her up and down. “How is he?”

“He’s been better,” Alice half-shrugged, “but he’s also been worse.”

Truthfully, Jasper hadn’t given two shits about the article, despite it being the most buzzed about thing all week. All the end-of-week news programs with a high viewer count were already writing up their own interpretations of the situation, and the topic wouldn’t die down until late next week. Alice couldn’t quite see specifically what would be stealing the spotlight from them, but she didn’t quite care, either.

“He’ll be toast when I see him again,” Rosalie grumbled, carefully placing all her papers and folders back into her own bag. “Next time you call him tell him blocking me only comes with consequences.”

“Oh trust me, he knows,” Alice fought a smile then. She wasn’t going to tell the blonde that _she_ had told him over the phone to block Rose’s number. Or how he hadn’t even been reluctant in the motion.

When Rosalie reunited with Emmett on Thursday, Alice knew it would provide enough distraction that the woman wouldn’t even care about her nor Jasper soon enough.

“Where to next?” She turned toward Carlisle, her question genuine. She knew it was a toss up between Buffalo and Albany, and she very badly hoped it would be Albany. Because if she was sent to Buffalo then it would be another two weeks on the road.

But if she lucked out with Albany, she could be home this weekend…

He must’ve sensed her unease at even asking the question because he simply sighed at her. “You want Albany don’t you?”

“I miss home,” she defended pitifully. It had been almost a month that she’d been gone now.

It was the longest she’d been gone since returning to Ricketts after the war. Traveling from center to center, surveying damage, interviewing war-created newborns, and sitting in on meetings with her fellow Protectors. It had kept her entirely busy for weeks now.

Her comrades hadn’t needed to travel as much as she did—they could settle into a place for weeks at a time, taking care of everything that was needed—but since she was still technically in training, she couldn’t hold any official meetings on her own yet. Basic aid, she could do.

And aid is something that centers across the nations were absolutely in dire need of. Even still.

So on the road she remained.

He opened a thin envelope, flicking through it. “Albany first, and then Ithaca for a couple days, please,” he plucked a few papers out of the folder before placing it in an empty one and handing it over. “I’ll be home in a couple of days. I’ll see you there.”

Alice almost gasped with joy when his words caused a fantastic series of visions to overcome her. And then her skinny arms were wrapped around his torso and she was smiling and hugging him and nearly jumping in place. “Thank you thank you thank you!” Because not only was she going home after this, but she’d be allowed to _stay_ for a little while.

“No rushing,” Rosalie’s eyes were stern as she pointed a perfectly-manicured finger. “I mean it. No running late, either. Take this seriously.”

“I do—I _will_ ,” Alice defended with an immediate frown. “I take this plenty seriously.”

“Prove it then,” her stern glare went from Alice and then softened up at Carlisle. “I’ll be upstairs for a few more hours.”

He nodded at her. “I’ll let you know before I leave.”

Rosalie pointed another stern finger Alice’s way before gathering up her bag and leaving.

“Am I to assume your tardiness was ‘for the greater good’?” He raised an eyebrow at the girl once they were both certain Rosalie was out of earshot.

“Will you be less mad if I said yes?”

“I’m not mad—”

“If you say you’re disappointed it will hurt my feelings more, so tread lightly.”

He cracked a smile at that. “I’m not disappointed, either. You’ve been exceeding my expectations since day one. I don’t have any criticism for you.”

“Good, cause Rose has enough for all of you.”

“She’s very good at pushing people to be better.”

“So I’m _not_ good enough?” Alice challenged.

He laughed then. “You are. But she’ll always want you to be better.”

“I should’ve pretended to suck at this job at the beginning. That way maybe now I’d only be starting the boring stuff, instead of stuck already doing it _and_ being yelled at for being late to meetings I’m not allowed to hold control of yet."

“Do you think you’re ready for that?” His question was genuine.

“God, no.”

“I think Rosalie is hard on you because she sees more potential,” but before Alice could groan, he continued. “I agree, by the way. You’ve basically been forced to learn everything very fast this past year. Faster than anyone else had to do it. And you’ve done it remarkably.”

“Remarkably enough to earn a vacation?”

“Not a vacation, a break.”

She pouted then, “Why not a vacation?”

He grinned back at her, knowingly. “Where on Earth would you go?”

Nowhere but home. That was the truth of it. And it would remain her reality for as long as Jasper was still on probation.

“Exactly,” he chuckled to himself. “Head to Albany, help out there. On Friday drive to Ithaca and see just how many interviews they still have and let me or Esme know. You’ll be there a day if it isn’t a lot; two days _maximum_. I’ll see you this weekend, most likely.”

“Back to Denali?”

He nodded, not even questioning the fact that she already knew where he would be over the next few days. They’d all gotten used to her gift by now. “You can come next time.”

As exciting as the prospect sounded, she knew she was more excited to get home. “Next time,” she confirmed with a smile.

When she got back to her car—relief that it was still there very prevalent upon sight of it—the first thing she did was turn her phone back on.

A few delayed angry text messages from minutes before the meeting from Rosalie buzzed their way through. Alice simply glanced over those in favor of opening a few from Josie.

She grinned widely at the screenshots her mother sent her. Six different pictures of men’s suits.

**HeS driving me up a wall. Please pick for me before I end up dragging his sorry butt to the menS warehouse in town. Oh he will hate it more if he doesnT listen!**

Alice laughed happily, knowing that Jasper was outright refusing to accept Josie’s offer to buy him a ‘church suit’. Mainly because he wasn’t religious (and refused to attend church) but also because he hated when the woman spent money on him.

But, and bless his un-beating, agnostic heart, he’d been driving Josie to some community church every Sunday for a couple of months now.

And now, her mother was outright determined to get him to actually go _with_ her. And she was going to dress him for the occasion…

 **what are his measurements?** Another text read. **he wonT let me take any. The nerve!**

Alice grinned and sent back a few quick texts. Knowing that, although she was off and working tirelessly, at least her two most precious people were keeping each other company.

She missed them both terribly. It was like nothing else, to watch her stern elderly mother fuss at Jasper. And Jasper, being the gentleman he was, but also being very unsure how to handle Josephine Foote’s sometimes-abrasive nature, was typically left annoyed or exasperated at the woman’s actions.

They got on each other’s last nerve constantly.

It was the best.

She sent Jasper a quick text, too.

**If you tell her you like the blue one she’ll leave you alone for two days**

She grinned conspiratorially as she placed the phone down. Then, turning the music louder she pulled away.

Four more days, and she’d be back home again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh, surprise?
> 
> I wasn't planning on posting this so soon. (And yes, I'm calling 18 months after CotN's ending 'soon'.) But it's been one hell of a year and a half; for me personally and for the world in general. With an election in the US looming, with a pandemic still ravaging the globe, and with the police still brutalizing people day in and day out, it's an exhausting world to exist in here in the United States. I haven't even had time to finish this story, which was the one prerequisite I gave myself: finish the story and THEN you can post it. But while it's important to be present and informed right now, I know how important some good old fashioned escapism can be. And knowing that I can be a source of light for some people nowadays, no matter how little or dim that light may be, has forced my hand and helped me make the decision to start posting this story now.
> 
> Personally, I've been through a shitload in the last many months. I had a major surgery last year, moved to Los Angeles almost a year ago, and since then I've begun a new career in restaurant management while I work on advancing my ever-struggling music career. I've gained one (1) stalker, many friends, a few legitimate enemies, and have been through some bonkers nonsense. (There are things I can't even tell you; legally, I mean. But we won't get into that insanity.)
> 
> So today, on my birthday, I gift YOU this. Call of the Night's long-awaited sequel. I'll only be posting once a month. (At the beginning of each new zodiac season probably lmao; happy Libra season y'all! Especially to ALICE!) Or, at least until I still have the story as a WIP on my end here. Once it's fully written and finished I'll switch it to three or four times a month, but until it's complete, this is what I can offer you.
> 
> I hope you've been kind to yourself this year, and know that I'm here and I love you.
> 
> Hope you enjoy Walk in the Dark.


	2. Chapter 2

When Carlisle told her Albany needed lots of basic aid, he really meant basic.

The good thing was that she had at least some exposure to the construction process; she'd watched Esme build a shed in a few hours last spring. (And though she hadn't exactly helped, she'd paid moderate attention.)

The bad thing was that she had no idea how to read blueprints yet. She ended up having to follow around a pair of less-than-helpful construction workers for two days, attempting to assist in the rebuilding of Albany’s main offices.

There were enough people on the project that she could simply watch for a few minutes and then work alongside everyone for the duration that she was there. And she had to admit that it felt nice not to be looked at like some powerful leader; she forgot how good it felt to simply be a part of the background…

Albany’s containment center only retained minimal damage. Meaning that although their main offices were burnt to a crisp in a takeover attempt, the rest of the sprawling campus had been left unmarred.

But still, loss had touched them, too.

There was a brand new memorial garden at the heart of the campus to prove it.

Other than helping kickstart their construction efforts, Alice wasn’t needed elsewhere. Still, when she left she took with her an arm-full of documents that would need to be delivered to Esme when she saw the woman next.

Esme had been splitting her time between New York City and Washington DC, perhaps the busiest out of all of them. Alice had only seen her a handful of times over the past several months, and she missed the woman terribly. If her visions gave her any indication, their paths wouldn’t be crossing again any time soon.

Her and Jasper’s futures though…

Alice found herself accidentally turning the almost three hour drive to Ithaca into a two hour one, eager to get the last leg of her journey out of the way so she could return home.

It was a little irresponsible, she had to admit. She'd only had her license for a few months—as long as she’d been on the road—so she knew that getting pulled over, even for something as mundane as _speeding,_ would only hurt her already-changing reputation.

Visions helped in that regard; but unless the officer was a shifter, like Jacob Black, Alice would see them coming a mile away.

Again, she acknowledged that using her gift to break laws, as minor as they may be in her eyes, was probably a bad idea. But still.

The faster this went, the quicker she could go home.

It wasn’t until she arrived at the tiny center late at night when she realized that she was going to be dealing with a little bit more than she bargained for.

She tried hard to keep her spirits up as she met and spoke with the Lieutenants and containers on duty; people seemed generally more okay with her presence there than they had been in Albany or Boston. Friendly, overall.

But even after a few hours her smiles started feeling heavier and her happiness faker.

Despite the helpfulness of her gift, the first thing she’d seen upon arrival in Ithaca was the main thing she’d be doing: entrance interviews with newborns. Standard procedure for the most part, but these people had been changed during what people were now calling ‘Maria’s War’.

And that wasn’t the worst part.

After sunrise, after she’d been given a tour of the tiny campus (it hadn’t lasted long) she’d sat with the Lieutenant on duty, a woman with a head of short-cut honey colored hair who stood over a full foot taller than her.

Their campus only had two buildings. The main offices, where nearly everything transpired on campus, and a tiny newborn center, a mile further into the woods.

Alice sat opposite of the woman in their small caf—the entire basement level—an empty cup resting between her palms. She hadn’t been thirsty, but she was learning that a lot of their leadership enjoyed mulling over ideas while sipping something warm in the caf.

It was a strange concept to her. As a young vampire, Alice would have never assumed feeding could be a social thing. It had been only seen as a necessity to her at first. Something she did under the cover of darkness, breaking in and out of buildings to do her own brand of hunting. Of course, that was before Josie had found her and taken her in, and before she’d fully learned what a ‘vampire’ was.

She found the oddities of her newfound everyday life bizarre beyond what she ever could’ve dreamed. Just over a year ago she fed alone and quietly at night, stitching together fabrics during the day, and stealing time at the library when she could get away with it. It was simple. But now, when almost everything she did had some sort of over-complication behind it, she missed it.

“I know,” the woman, named Kollie, spoke carefully, and Alice could already see how focused she was on trying to soften her words, “that nothing I say here is ‘off the record’ but,” another pause, and hesitation, “we’re not stupid. We know our odds of remaining open are slim—people are needed elsewhere and we don’t have the population we did this time last year,” she paused and took a sip. Red smudged her upper lip and she spent a couple of seconds wiping her mouth clean, pocketing a rust-colored handkerchief.

“How drastically are things going to be changing for us? Not just here. But in general. For vampires?”

And that was the million dollar question nowadays.

Alice picked her words very carefully; half of them were from herself, the other half were practiced. Rosalie hadn’t had too much time to spend with her on media training—and Jasper had supplemented a little bit—but Alice was leaning now that it was just as efficient if those skills were applied in smaller settings, such as this.

“People are still in mourning,” she spoke seriously, “Humans and vampires. And we’re rebuilding, too. Not just our communities but our very own Containment Centers. Just yesterday I was helping rebuild Albany’s main offices. And I mean that literally.”

“Why is it taking so long?” The woman asked, and Alice could tell she was barely concealing exasperation already.

“Little to no manpower. We’ll be announcing finalized casualty counts soon. The truth is there aren’t a whole lot of us left.”

The woman sat back, deciding against pushing further. “I still don’t understand how. How did our losses end up so great?”

“People tried to help—untrained civilians.”

“Even despite that, their numbers shouldn’t have been able to rival ours. On paper or in reality.”

Alice didn’t nod, but she did agree. When you checked the facts and statistics, little made sense. But she thought back to the civilian death toll and brushed her questionable thoughts away. It would do her no good to think about ‘why’ when hundreds of thousands were dead.

Her people. That’s what they’d become when she’d taken her oath.

Nowadays she felt more like the Queen of Death than a Protector of anything…

They finished up soon after and made their way upstairs. Alice looked over a few reports while she waited for the transport from the newborn center to arrive. It appeared the only reason Ithaca was special was because it currently housed war-turned newborns. There wasn’t much else happening around there.

Even before the war, the center had been so new—weeks old, barely—and so their newborn center had yet to be utilized. Then, while the war had done it’s part in reducing their population drastically, there was also a surge in illegal changing going on. Between the radicals trying to up their numbers or create Decoys—vampires changed just to incite more chaos and cause more death—and the newborns going on half-hearted feeding frenzies (and not draining their prey) the amount of entrance interviews going on across the country was high.

Alice frowned at one particular file and hated the visions she got then. One man in particular was going to be a bit difficult. Why, she couldn’t quite pinpoint yet. But his willingness to talk to her depended entirely on how she handled the situation.

When she handed the files back to Kollie, she stuck that one on the bottom. Better save the hard one for last. That way she could speed through the first few with ease and haste.

Two hours later, in the middle of a different vampire’s entrance interview, a man not much larger than herself eyed her up and down “It seems like it took you guys long enough to finally get this done.”

Alice scribbled his previous reply onto the paper before clicking her pen. Lifting her eyes she stared at the bald man across the table. His eyes were still red, but not as vibrant as they’d been months ago.

“And, no offense, I’m confused as to why they sent a Protector to do this. Surely, you guys aren’t responsible for all of these interviews all the time?”

She half shrugged. “Special circumstances call for a change in the way things are done.”

“Meaning: a war that started from the inside means you can’t trust your own people anymore.”

Alice raised an eyebrow. It was something she had heard before; more often as of late. It wasn’t incorrect, exactly, but of course she would never agree with the controversial statement. “No, it means we want to have more hands on when it comes to individuals like yourself.”

“I attempted the change process years ago,” he sat back and stretched. “Failed on the first step. I’m shocked you guys didn’t take a look at someone like me and rip my head off before I became a liability or whatever.”

She set the pen down, perfectly perpendicular to the paper she was writing on. The man’s name was Leonard, and he’d been overly-casual with her the entire interview. “We recognize that individuals changed against their will are victims; we don’t punish the innocent.”

“What would you do if this became the new normal? If people got illegally changed under the guise of it being a freak accident or whatever? Then, boom. Suddenly that punk you turned down for being a fucking loon gets his immortality anyways.”

“That’s already illegal and already comes with consequences.”

He made a thoughtful noise at that. “What do you do with them? Kill them?”

Alice picked her pen back up, eyes finding the next question on the paper. “What was the name of the individual, or individuals, who apprehended you?”

He ignored her question. “So what if I’d done what Ellen did—have you interviewed Ellen yet?—and told you guys I wasn’t interested in all of this stuff. You’d kill me right? I know they still haven’t figured out a cure for this shit.” He gestured to himself and then, to her. “But I’m assuming if in fifty years, when my wife is dead, and I get tired of this crap, there’s other options right?”

“Are you telling me now you don’t want to go through with this?”

“Nah,” he waved a hand toward her, grinning. “We’ll keep on.” But despite his nonchalance, Alice could tell: although immortality had been something he’d sought out a decade ago (according to his paperwork) it wasn’t anything he wanted now. He was 31 and had gotten married only a year before the war.

His wife had miscarried shortly after his disappearance. He wouldn’t be able to see her in person again for years. Not until after they carted him off to a new Center upstate for self-control training. According to the cadet who had gone over each of their files alongside her, the wife had faxed over divorce paper work last week.

Alice resumed the interview, and the man gave her all the answers she was looking for.

Despite how efficiently she could perform an entrance interview, as time passed they were getting increasingly difficult for her. It was hard not to walk out of a room and fight the overwhelming desire to keep tabs on their future. Sure, her only responsibility was to put these people’s lives on paper so that files could be built and their future identities could be formed. But these people were so much more than another number added to their ever-changing statistics.

Even now, as she waited for them to swap out newborns so that she could perform her final interview, Alice found herself having to refrain from looking into the man’s— _Leonard’s_ , she corrected herself—future. Even without looking, she had a sinking suspicion he’d be looking into their ‘alternative options’ sooner than he was letting on.

It wasn’t until she was about to step foot back into the room for her final interview when she hesitated. This was the man that she knew was going to be difficult. What she _hadn’t_ seen was the specifics. Which only meant that there was going to be a level of unpredictability during this interview that even _she_ couldn’t quite anticipate…

“They’re ready for you,” a square-faced cadet smiled at her before leaving the small office.

She moved quickly out of the room and across the hall. She had barely stepped inside the room when a series of visions struck her.

So, it appeared this man hadn’t been expecting _her_.

He was immediately exasperated. “Shouldn’t anybody else be doing this?”

Alice didn’t let that comment stop her stride. She walked in briskly, neatly placing his file on the table between them before pulling back her chair and sitting herself into it. “I’m sorry you feel that way,” she finally spoke as she looked up at him. He looked young. Thinking back to his paperwork she recalled that his name was Vic and he was eighteen.

He’d been changed when Maria’s caravan had stormed through his small town in North Dakota. His two roommates that he’d been hiding out with had been killed—drained dry by radicals—but he’d been left, with just enough life left in him for the venom to spread…

“No. No I’m not doing this anymore.” He shook his head firmly, and Alice couldn’t help but notice how his hands were suddenly shaking.

Thinking back to his paperwork, she couldn’t help but wonder why he was so frustrated at her appearance. Perhaps he thought what Leonard thought: that their presence in doing these interviews first-hand was part of some sort of attempted cover-up. Or some other less-likely conspiracy.

“I can assure you, whether I or one of my colleagues does this interview, the result will be the same.”

But still, he shook his head stubbornly as she spoke. “I can’t—won’t, I _won’t_ do this.”

“Do you mind if I ask why?”

And suddenly a flurry of visions overtook her—whatever this man was mulling over, he really _really_ didn’t want to say. The instant she got the vision, she was left stunned. Two seconds later, the man vocalized his reason.

“I don’t want the mate of the guy who killed my friends interviewing me.”

Alice couldn’t bring any words forth except for a blurted out, “What?”

That hadn’t been in his file.

Vic was distressed, then. Glancing around the room he shifted uncomfortably, a frown taking root on his face. “Shit,” he muttered to himself before letting his head fall into his hands.

 _Get it together,_ she commanded mentally, staring blankly at this boy as he worked to keep himself calm.

“Your file says you don’t remember what happened,” she spoke evenly, eyes glancing toward the paperwork as her hands hurried to open the folder and confirm what she already knew.

“What are they going to do to me?” He asked miserably. “I didn’t want to lie, but when they asked me before I couldn’t—I didn’t want to go through it again. I didn’t want to have to relive it just for your people’s benefit.” He was dangerously close to crying, and equally close to having his irritation restored instead.

“Nothing,” she assured him quickly, still reeling from the shock of the revelation. “So if he—” _say it,_ she snapped inwardly, “if Mr. Whitlock is the one who killed your roommates…”

He nodded before she could finish talking. “ _He’s_ the one that changed me. That’s why—and no offense Ms. Brandon—but this is bullshit. And I’m not talking about the slap on the wrist he’s getting. Undercover or not I—you don’t know what I saw that night. You don’t understand what it feels like to know you’re about to die.” Still teetering on the edge between fury and anguish, he put his head back in his hands.

She wanted to tell him that he was wrong. That she understood precisely what he was talking about, more than anyone would ever know.

“You’re right,” she lied. “I can’t empathize. I can only extend my sympathies, and tell you how sorry I am that you had to go through that.”

“But you’re still going to do this interview? Even knowing that _he_ ’s the one responsible for this?!” He was incredulous. “That’s ridiculous. You’re the most biased of all.”

“How about this,” she clicked her pen, knowing she was about to get nowhere fast. “We do the interview, you tell me all you’re comfortable telling me, and then I let you review the paperwork before our meeting is done. Anything that you see that I wrote that you don’t like, we’ll change. Anything that you think I left out, we’ll add.” He eyed her suspiciously. “Bias-free.”

“How do I know you won’t completely hide the fact that he changed me? Or that you won’t change things on these papers after you leave?”

She shrugged, “If you’re so worried about it, follow up with Lieutenant Barns. Let her know, too. I know you weren’t planning on telling anyone that; I’m sure if I hadn’t walked through the door, it wouldn’t be on your file at all.”

He swallowed loudly. “I’d been planning on taking it to the grave.”

Bold choice of words coming from a newly-immortal being.

“Don’t hide it. You won’t be reprimanded or punished for keeping that to yourself. People react differently to trauma,” her phrasing made her feel very much like Edward with that statement, “you’re a victim of a crime. We aren’t going to retaliate toward you.”

“And I’m supposed to trust you?” His voice was flat. “You know, when I realized who had smashed their way through the window that morning, I was confused. I know who you people are.I know what Whitlock looks like. Everyone does. It wasn’t until I realized he’d already snapped Wilson and Rudy’s necks that I thought we were in any danger.” He leaned forward, deciding anger was the best emotion to lean into now. “Because I _trusted_ you guys,” he enunciated the word slowly. “For an undercover operation, he got pretty fucking into it.”

This felt like a test. Like something that Rosalie or Edward had set up to ensure that she’d know how to keep her cool and hold her tongue. The story they’d crafted had been set in stone the moment the press release had hit newsstands last fall.

Alice had known there were likely people out there whom had been changed by Jasper. With the amount of human’s she’d witnessed him drain in her mind, the odds had climbed with each and every one of his meals. But this was their first confirmation that his death count wasn’t just that; he had a change count, too.

And she was going to have to be the one to tell him.

Suddenly, seeing him the following day left her feel a little less excited…

Channelling her best Rosalie impression, Alice inhaled. It was time to play politician. A role she was atrocious at, but a role she had to play regardless. “I’m not at liberty to discuss anything involving the actual mission that led up to the end of the war, but I can, again, extend my most genuine sympathies. You have my—”

“Just,” he cut her off, waving his hand at her as if to physically quiet her, “stop. I don’t want to hear it. I,” he sighed, as if resigned to the fact that this interview was going to happen with her no matter what, “want to get this over with.”

The interview wrapped up not long after that. All of his information, minus one startling realization, added up and he was cleared and ready for self-control training.

Later on she spoke to Kollie, asking her if anyone had known about the boy’s changing circumstances. The woman seemed just as shocked.

“All we knew was that we were getting a group with newborns from all over the midwest and beyond,” she'd stared at Alice, wide-eyed, “but other than it being linked to Maria herself, we didn’t know it was Mr. Whitlock.”

Alice had simply nodded with the confirmation of what she already knew deep down. But almost an hour later, right before she left, the woman had stopped her again.

“What are you going to do?” She asked. And Alice could tell this wasn’t her Lieutenant asking her as a Protector. This was someone, concerned for her, asking about her relationship.

Alice forced a smile. “I’m going to go home for the first time in over a month, now. And spend sometime with my loved ones.” Gathering her bag up onto her shoulder, she nodded toward the woman. “I recommend you do the same.”

She elected to drive home in silence after that. It would’ve done her no good to have anything playing in the background. There was no tuning out those thoughts; no avoiding the strange (and sometimes scary) reality that she was facing.

Her only solace was in the fact that her work was done for now. Countless interviews, meetings, paperwork, and evaluations made her wish she could take more than just a simple break from it all. And with the sheer volume of mourning people she’d spent time with, she was struggling to separate their trauma from her own.

She couldn’t wait to step out of her Protector role, even if for a few days.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to help. She did. She _had been_ helping. And of course she knew that things in no way were going back to normal yet. But as the weeks and months and seasons continued to pass Alice wondered if things would _ever_ go back to normal.

Probably not. She had to be at least a _little_ realistic here.

It wasn’t as if _anyone_ could go back to pretending things were the way they used to be before a presumed-dead international terrorist rose from the grave to initiate a continent-wide attack on every demographic under the sun.

Thinking back to some of the casualty reports, Alice felt her stomach turn.

And knowing that she still had plenty of days and weeks ahead of her of hard work—status reports and document transfers and overall Protector training—made her feel mentally exhausted.

But this was her job. She’d taken an oath. As chaotic as it was she’d willingly signed up for this. Sure, she hadn’t quite _volunteered_ , but none of them had. Except, maybe Carlisle.

Carlisle, who had hopped on a boat to cross the Atlantic just to be near a certain someone again…

Merging onto a different highway she finally allowed herself a small smile.

So, maybe he hadn’t quite wanted the job as much as he’d wanted to be with the woman attached to the job, but still. Carlisle had been a great leader over the decades, no matter what anyone else had to say about it.

(And _oh_ , people had definitely been saying things about it.)

Pressing her foot down on the pedal, she frowned when the car began to groan as she pushed it passed 85 miles per hour. Pulling her foot back slightly she bit back a frustrated huff; she needed to get herself a car, and stat.

Now that she was licensed and driving she completely understood Rosalie and Edward’s fascination and odd love of expensive, luxury cars.

Her original rental—the one that had been stolen in Maryland—had been a sporty little blue number. Where this white thing groaned at the strain Alice was putting it under, that one had _purred_.

With disappointment she let the car drift down to a comfortable seventy-five miles per hour. Alice supposed that being confined to office spaces and administrative buildings for days on end it would make anyone miss anything at all that took their mind off of work.

And while driving wasn’t the most exhilarating thing in the world, when your vehicle was nice and fast it was the closest thing you could get to running through the forest.

With a quick decision—and with the confirmation of a foggy vision placed somewhere in her near future—Alice decided she would go car shopping the first opportunity she got.

Head halfway in and halfway out of the future, Alice robotically lead the car further and further south. Closer and closer to home. She’d promised Josie that she wouldn’t seek out visions while driving—her mother, for all intents and purposes, had been adamant that she drive safely and _correctly—_ but sometimes (oftentimes) visions simply came to her without her trying.

And well, perhaps she still had some bad habits to break.

But _not_ watching Jasper’s every move had been the first thing she’d had to do over the past few months.

And she’d gotten so good at keeping to herself that even though she was moving over seventy miles an hour down the interstate, she dared a quick glance toward his future. Flickering through vision after vision, Alice nearly let the car drift when she realized that not only was Jasper home and waiting for her, but Josie was there, too.

Letting out a delighted gasp, she nearly forgot which vehicle she was driving, and suddenly the engine was straining again. Letting up on the gas she reached for her phone.

He answered on the second ring.

“ _Hello?_ ”

“Why do people do that?” She mused, grinning. “Say ‘hi’ or ‘hello’ when they answer the phone. You already know it’s me.”

Jasper made an amused noise. Alice could _hear_ his smile, and it warmed her. “ _Yes, but it’s polite._ ”

“It’s unnecessary,” she leaned back into the driver’s seat, suddenly soothed by the sound of his voice. It was the first time they’d spoken in a few days. “A waste of time.”

“ _A waste of precious seconds,_ ” he agreed, his words teasing. “ _My apologies. I know your time is valuable._ ”

There was a muffled muttering on the other end, and Alice could hear the tell-tale sign of someone covering up the receiver. Immediately, she had to refrain from laughing. She knew it was Josie probably saying something, but it looked like Jasper was trying to keep her presence a secret for the time-being.

A pointless endeavor, but still very, very sweet.

“ _You on your way back?_ ” He asked after a few seconds.

“About forty minutes away,” she sighed happily. “Don’t know how long I’ll be home for, but at least a few days.” She eyed the clock on the dashboard and frowned. “I’d be there faster if this car didn’t threaten to break on me every time I tried to speed.”

“ _You’re not supposed to speed,_ ” he reminded her, amused. “ _You just got your license. You want to lose it that quickly?_ ”

Alice scoffed. “Please. I’d have to get caught for that to happen.”

“ _So, reckless driving is fine when we’re not caught?_ ”

“Don’t make me drop down to the speed limit here.”

He chuckled. “ _I’m kidding. Hurry up._ ”

Alice laughed happily at that, basking in the joy she felt at finally talking to him again. She only knew that seeing him again, after these long, hard weeks, would feel absolutely blissful. “I’m moving as fast as I can,” she paused, “outside of running, that is.”

Jasper made a thoughtful noise. “ _How irresponsible would it be for me to tell you to just leave the car there and run home faster?_ ”

“Very,” she grinned, “and I think Carlisle would have an aneurism if I lost another car.”

“ _Did they ever find that?_ ”

“Baltimore police is still looking for it,” she spoke matter-of-factly. “Don’t think they’ll find it, to be honest.”

“ _Pity,_ ” he spoke in a tone that revealed how little he really cared. “ _Well, I’ll be here when you get home._ ”

 _Home_.

The word coming from his mouth made her stomach do happy somersaults. Only Jasper could give her butterflies with one unsuspecting word.

“I’ll see you soon,” she sighed, happily. “I love you.”

“ _I love you, too._ ”

After she hung up the phone she stared dreamily at the road ahead of her. Never in a million years did she think her life would end up the way it had. Even a year ago, when she and Jasper were traveling from center to center, preparing containers for war, Alice had never dreamed one day she’d be exchanging wistful ‘I love you’s with the man she had been struggling to view as a friend, and not a threat.

It was funny how he’d been the center of her world in a completely different way throughout her life.

Being in love was by far the preferable option; sometimes it was hard to think about what it had been like to be so thoroughly terrified of him.

So everyday, despite the challenges she found herself coming across, she forced herself to be thankful for what she did have, even with her stress levels off the charts.

Because despite everything, at least she had a home—and people she loved—to come back to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Scorpio season! It's a good time to reflect, and to let go of things we've been holding onto.
> 
> I appreciate all the kind words from the first chapter. Very happy to be back and posting this story finally. It picks up quickly, so enjoy the peace while it lasts.


	3. Chapter 3

The car was barely shifted into park before Alice was flying out the door and up to the house, completely abandoning her bags inside of it.

Before she could reach the door Jasper was already there, standing in the doorway, bracing himself and grinning.

Alice didn't give him the chance to say a thing before she launched herself into his arms with a laugh. When he wrapped his arms around her, holding her off the ground like she weighed absolutely _nothing_ , she felt complete again.

She was kissing him before she knew what she was doing.

He returned the affection with a fervor and her sudden arousal was entirely out of her control. Tightening her legs around his torso she deepened the kiss.

When he pulled back slightly, smiling widely, she wanted to groan.

"Not now," he muttered softly before pressing a few—decidedly more _chaste_ —kisses to her lips. "I have something for you."

She scoffed, pulling back enough so that he could see her pout. Then, loudly, she spoke. "If it's Josie I already know she's here."

The responding cackle she heard from the nearby kitchen filled her with warmth.

"I told you!" Josephine Foote laughed, the noise echoing through the house. "You couldn't surprise her if your life depended on it!"

Jasper rolled his eyes, arms still wrapped around Alice and keeping her suspended in the air. "I knew you would know but—"

Alice silenced him with another quick kiss. "Shush. It's sweet of you, thank you." Jasper didn't _need_ to surprise her for it to mean anything more to her. It was more than enough to have to people she adored this much under the same roof.

She couldn't even imagine what it would be like if Jasper _could_ surprise her with little, mundane, every day gestures. She'd thought about it before, but then quickly realized she much rather preferred knowing. It gave her something to look forward to.

And when all you did was look forward to things (quite literally) it was nice to have at least one thing consistent amongst the ever-changing future ahead of them.

Jasper released his hold on her, his arms dropping down to his sides, but Alice still clung to him tightly.

"Come on," he laughed, pulling lightly at one of her arms that was still wrapped snugly around his neck. "She's been talking my ear off. It's your turn."

"Hm, go ahead," she tightened her embrace and leaned her head forward until it was resting against his shoulder. "I'll be right here."

She was sure it looked comical—after all, his arms were completely at his sides as he walked across the foyer and toward the kitchen where Josie eagerly awaited her company—but she wasn't about to release him yet. She didn't care if she looked childish. She'd missed her Jasper.

Josie chuckled as Jasper entered the room, Alice still very much clinging to him firmly. Then, the woman clicked her tongue. "Now get down from there, child. You look ridiculous. Jasper! Put her down!"

He held his arms out, as if attempting a shrug, displaying that it wasn't _him_ keeping her up there.

Alice smiled to herself, pecking Jasper on the cheek before hopping down and landing softly. In the next instant she was across the room.

Josie was sitting on one of the stools that was usually kept tucked beneath a granite countertop. Her purse sat opened in front of her and next to it, a few magazines.

Oh no. Even as she reached forward and hugged her mother, Alice suddenly knew—both because of her visions, and because she _knew_ her mom—that she was about to get scolded.

"Hi honey," the older woman hugged her tightly and Alice took a long moment to enjoy the warmth of her familiar embrace. Inhaling deeply she couldn't help but notice that something was off.

"New perfume?" It was a simple change but a jarring one. As long as Alice had known her, Josie had only ever worn one perfume. Well, that was if they didn't count the two months in '96 when Macy's hadn't had it in stock, but still. Now, where there was usually a floral, citrus fragrance, this one smelled more… soapy.

"Of course that's the first thing you comment on," it was half of a scolding and half in amazement. "Daisy has me turned onto this new one. It's not as classic as Chantilly, and it's more expensive, but it's helping with my headaches, I think."

That sobered Alice up immediately. "Headaches?"

The woman smacked her arm, shooting her an unamused look. "Don't you start. I've been getting these for thirty years now, you know that."

"Sorry, sorry," Alice knew better than to attempt to breach the subject of Josie's health. The woman had hated talking about it with her before, but she downright _despised_ any discussion of her human issues when she was amongst vampires only. According to her, it was an insult.

And Alice had missed her mother far too much to want her upset upon reuniting.

"If you start worrying about nothing I'll damn well give you something to worry about—!"

Josie's annoyance was cut off when Jasper placed a hot mug of tea in front of her.

Alice mouthed a 'thank you' as he smirked and turned back to clean up the kettle. "How long are you here for?"

"I'm making Jasper drive me back in a few minutes actually," Josie leaned forward, blowing on the hot liquid, before taking a small sip. "Needs more sugar." Jasper appeared instantly, setting an entire jar and spoon next to the mug. "But it's getting late and I've been up since nearly four. I just wanted to see you when you got back."

The disappointment that formed low in her belly was heavy. Josie's fleeting presence was something she hadn't taken note of in her visions. All Alice had seen was that she would be there, and things would be nice. She didn't know that she'd only be able to calmly enjoy that for 'a few minutes'.

"Oh, don't look so sad," the woman frowned and then opened her arms back up. Alice fell into her embrace easily, hating that she couldn't hide her disappointment if her life depended on it. "When do you hit the road again?"

"Not sure yet. Carlisle comes back this weekend, and I'm sure I'll find out after that."

"Perfect!" Josie brightened up at that. "He can give this one a break and drive me to my service on Sunday morning." She threw a thumb over her shoulder and Alice could hear Jasper scoff under his breath. "Child won't even walk through the doors of the damn church," her words were more than loud enough for Jasper to hear, but Josie had never been one to gossip. Oh no, if there's something she wanted to tell you, you were going to hear it from Josie herself. "You're not going to combust when you cross the threshold you know?" She turned on her stool to fix a glare onto Jasper's back.

"I'm not taking that chance," he deadpanned in reply, washing dishes in the sink.

Alice couldn't help but laugh. "I'm sure Carlisle will be happy to go with you. I wish you would stay a little longer though."

"By the time you and Jasper drop me off we'll have spent plenty of time with each other. Besides, I think he's had enough of me for one day."

The drive to Josie's place was a little over a half an hour away. Not as much time as Alice would have preferred, but better than nothing.

"What's this?" Alice gestured to Josie's choice of reading material. The three magazines looked brand new, but Alice knew that Josie had already rifled through them and dog-eared every page that mentioned Alice or Jasper.

"They spelled my name wrong!" As if reminded of a terrible atrocity Josie reached for the first magazine and flipped it open. "You need to email these people at _US_ and tell them that my name has an 'E' on the end! It's not _Foot_ , it's _Foote_! Ridiculous!"

Alice suppressed a smile. "That's the only comment you have?"

"I mean, these people haven't said anything that rude article didn't already say," she flipped through a few more pages on the same magazine and pointed to a photo, frowning. "You don't think they could've used a better picture?" It was a photo of Jasper, Josie on his arm as he guided her to the car in the church parking lot.

It would've been a heartwarming picture if it weren't for the disturbing fact that it was snapped by a paparazzo trying to make some money.

"I don't even care that they took it at church—I always look good for my services," she spoke as if it were a point of pride. "But this damn caption ticks me right off—acting like I don't know who I'm dealing with. They wouldn't say a thing about being 'uncharacteristically calm' if they knew the first damn thing about my character!"

"Where did you get these?" Alice was a little annoyed. Josie had promised her a few weeks ago she would lay off the gossip magazines; she'd even cancelled a few subscriptions. Alice had seen as much in a couple of visions.

"Daisy, of course. She's a bad influence," she spoke simply, as if that was all the explanation that they'd get. "Not a day goes by where she doesn't have something new to share with me." She sighed over exaggeratedly. "It can't be helped when your baby is a celebrity."

"I hate that word," Alice muttered for what felt like the thousandth time.

"I'm shocked you're not used to it by now. If the _Times_ wrote an article on me I'd be signing autographs when the pastor isn't looking," she cackled at her own joke, closing the first publication and then opening the second. "This is nice," she flipped through the pages before landing on one with a smaller blurb. It was just a photo of Jasper and Alice holding hands. Taken the week he'd returned to Rickett's, if their exhausted state was any indication.

Directly next to the photo, a close-up shot of their intertwined hands.

The caption inquired their marital status, pointing out the lack of wedding rings.

Alice felt acute embarrassment at that. "Josie…"

"All I'm saying," the woman lifted a dark, wrinkled hand in surrender before quickly closing the magazine, "is that they'd stop asking if you two just tied the knot already."

" _Stop_ ," she begged, suddenly uncomfortable with the topic.

At first the media's focus on her and Jasper's relationship had been a strange thing. But that was back when they hadn't quite been in a relationship. After the war had finished up and they'd returned back home, the media had still been a bit obsessed with them. But now it had gotten out of hand.

A photo could be snapped of either of them by themselves in any environment and the next day the presses would be saying things like 'TAKING TIME APART?' or 'TROUBLE IN PARADISE!' as if their relationship was simply a game to them.

Most days, Alice had to remind herself that it _was_.

"Oh, don't take it too seriously," Josie commented just as the thought crossed her own mind. "I'm just saying. It's been ages since I've been to a wedding."

"You were just at one two Saturday's ago," Jasper chimed in from across the kitchen. "I picked you up and drove you to it myself."

"You be quiet!" Josie snapped at him, rolling up one of the magazines and swinging it toward him. "Unhelpful, rude boy! Where's Emmett?" She frowned, tossing the publication back onto the counter. "He'd be on my side for this."

"He's in…" Alice paused, flickering through a few visions, "he's either in San Diego or he's heading there now."

Josie humphed. "This one, you can keep." She handed Alice the third magazine, and that's when she noticed that it wasn't just another one of her mindless gossip columns, it was a _bridal_ magazine…

"It might trigger some inspiration," Josie shrugged, acting innocent again. Reaching forward she patted Alice's cheek lightly. "Oh, smile why don't you? What the hell do you vamps have against marriage? It's just a piece of paper, really."

"Exactly," Jasper finally chimed in, sitting at the counter across from her. "So what's the point?"

Alice knew that look in his eye. It was the look that he got before he decided that he was going to actually entertain a topic of conversation that could very well lead to an argument. It was the face of a man who knew how to argue and who knew how to _win_ …

 _Not now_ , Alice mouthed, shooting him an unamused look as she stepped closer to her mother. She wasn't about to spend the last few minutes with her while Jasper provoked her ire.

"Thank you," she tried to make her words sound genuine as she accepted the magazine. "I can't promise I'll read it end to end but," she glanced at the cover, trying not to grimace, "I'm sure I'll have some fun studying gown designs." And the prospect of sitting at her little work desk, stitching together a dress for the summertime, made old excitement begin to flicker inside of her.

"Send me pictures of your sketches when you start designing." Josie reached for her bag and looped it through her arm. "Oh! Before I forget," turning to dig through the oversized, brown bag, it took her a long moment before she retrieved something.

Alice accepted the white paper envelope as Josie handed it to her, and promptly froze.

"That's for you. I didn't get it until recently, but judging by the stamp they sent it last August. The post office held onto it once everyone went on lockdown. Took them until a couple of weeks ago to finally send all of my mail up here."

Alice could hardly focus on her words. The moment she'd taken the letter into her hands, the vision of what lay inside struck her like a lightning bolt.

There was no way. It seemed impossible.

Jasper was around the counter and at her side in a millisecond, sensing her sudden emotional turmoil. "What's…" but before he could ask her, his eyes found what her's were currently fixated on.

It was a letter addressed to Mary Alice Brandon, sent from one Cynthia Brandon-Holmes.

There wasn't much to focus on. The letter was plain, unassuming. The script was neat, even if the edges were worn with a little bit of age, the corners bent at different angles. Even the stamp in the corner was just a simple bluebird framed by some sort of wildflower.

It was the name of the sender that had Alice frozen in her tracks.

"See? Only _I_ can surprise her," Josie remarked to Jasper, amused.

"Do you want to read it privately?" Jasper asked. It was likely just a formality; he was probably aware of the fact that she already knew what it said. But Alice was shaking her head quickly.

No, these were the two people in the world she loved more than anyone. Of course she'd do it now.

Her fingers were careful as she delicately tore the envelope. Despite knowing what each and every word said, Alice worked slowly, being careful to not damage the paper, still stunned at how an almost-forgotten goal had quickly become reality…

Because it was her sister.

She read the words with her own eyes, stunned.

_Dear Mary Alice,_

_I hope this letter finds you well. I can't help but feel as if I'm writing to a stranger right now, as you very well may be. But, the proof that you aren't is too overwhelming for me to ignore anymore._

_My name is Cynthia Holmes (née Brandon). I was born in Biloxi Mississippi on April 6_ _th_ _, 1963. If I'm not mistaken—and again, if this isn't you, forgive me—I'm your sister. My memories of you are plenty but they're over fifty years old at this point, so I'm sure you remember me better than I, you. You disappeared when I was seven and we—our father, step-mother and I—moved to Northport shortly afterward._

_Attached, I have a few scans of some old photos I managed to print; another apology for the quality of them. I can't quite figure out how to use my scanner properly._

_I can only hope that after all these years you might wish to speak with me again. I would be grateful to get to know my sister after all of this time._

_Regards,_

_Cynthia Holmes_

Even as she felt the pictures underneath the folded paper, Alice couldn't bring herself to look at them, suddenly afraid of what she might see. Instead, she handed them to Josie swiftly. Then, a second later, she just about threw the letter at the old woman, too.

"Alice," Jasper's hands were on her shoulders, "hey." He turned her around to face him, but she couldn't focus. It was okay, a little voice in the back of her head tried to assure her. _She_ was okay.

And she was. Or, she should have been.

This was what she wanted. This was the one other thing she'd desired beyond a life without a death sentence and those she loved at her side. But now that all the information she'd ever wanted was there. It seemed almost too good to be true.

"Oh! Look at your hair!" Josie laughed jovially. "Oh, Alice, come here, you have to see it. It's so long."

"Alice," Jasper lifted her chin, forcing her to look him in the eye. She focused on him then, on his prominent frown, the way he studied her face intently, concern permeating the space between them. Then, she felt him begin to gloss over her fear; only slightly, but enough to give her more of an ability to shake off her sudden anxieties.

"Thanks," she breathed, reaching up and gripping his hands with her own tightly. "I'm fine," she whispered to him, turning back toward Josie. She could do this. She _had_ to do this.

Slowly, she stepped closer to her mother. And when Josie held the photos out for her to take, she accepted them.

There was only two of them. In the first one, a dark-haired girl grinned down at the baby in her lap—the baby laughed toward whoever was behind the camera. The next one, a little girl wearing a dress with a matching bonnet, pouting with a wicker basket in her tiny hands.

"You even still frown the same," Josie pointed out, overjoyed at the photos. Then, she picked up the letter and started to read.

Alice's eyes were still glued to the pictures. In the first photo she was probably no older than twelve or thirteen, but despite the long hair and the very human flush to her cheeks, it looked like _her_.

"I can't believe this," she finally whispered. There was a heavy emotion swimming in her chest and suddenly she was very close to crying. Reaching behind her she wrapped an arm around Jasper's midsection the same moment he lifted his to bring her close.

Josie read the letter's conclusion out loud. "' _I would be grateful to get to know my sister after all of this time._ ' Oh, would you look at that! I wish they had included photos of your parents. I might recognize one of them."

"You think you might?" Jasper asked, rubbing soothing circles against Alice's back.

"Biloxi ain't that big of a city. If Alice was born there, and her sister some ten years later or so, that means they lived there long enough. Although," she shrugged slightly, "white folk didn't start moving to my neck of the woods until the '70s."

"I have a sister," Alice muttered, still stunned. It didn't sound real. The words didn't even feel right, falling from her lips. "I can't believe it."

"Let's take this one step at a time," Jasper advised. "This looks very real, but I don't want you getting your hopes up."

Alice blinked up at him, confused. "What do you mean?" The photos looked real enough…

"What I'm trying to say is that there's a chance she might be a fraud," he spoke softly, squeezing her shoulder firmly. "It's not entirely rare for people to claim to be related to one of us."

Oh. She didn't think about that. And maybe that _was_ the case here. After all, the entire letter had caught her so off guard it made her wonder whether it was because it wouldn't lead anywhere. Perhaps if it were something more legitimate it would have given her a vision or two. "Does that happen a lot?"

"To all of us." He nodded. "People sometimes will claim being related to celebrities or well known people without really being so. I'm not saying this is fake, but it could be. There are a lot of in-genuine people out there."

Alice nodded as he spoke. That, she could handle. But deep down inside, an excitement was igniting unlike anything she'd ever felt before. Sure, there was a chance that this woman could be a phony, but if she wasn't, then Alice still had family out there.

"Give her a call," Josie gestured toward Alice with the letter, "just don't let her in on the fact that you don't remember nothing. If she's a liar she'll use that for her advantage."

Alice's eyes fell upon the phone number and email address written beneath the woman's signature. She would absolutely have to call and see. Eyeing the clock she slowly folded the letter back up. It was getting late; she could call in the morning.

"Worst case scenario, it's some nutcase," Josie commented, looping her arm through her purse and slowly moving herself off of the bench. Jasper was at her side, steadying her as she lowered herself to the ground, looping her arm through his. "Best case scenario, you've found some family! Congrats!" Smiling down at Alice, she reached out and patted her cheek once more. "It's okay, baby."

"I know it is," she muttered as she slid the letter back into the envelope, being careful as she did the same with the photos.

Josie laughed as she headed toward the door that led to the garage. "Then stop frowning. This could be good."

Could be, Alice wanted to say. But she hated how she simply didn't know yet. Silently she followed them into the garage, the letter still in her hands.

When Jasper opened the door to the backseat, helping the older woman inside, he raised an eyebrow toward Alice when she climbed in right after. She was curled into her mother's side before Jasper had even started the car.

The drive went unnaturally quick. Whether it was Jasper's driving or the mental haze she found herself in, Alice wasn't quite sure. Instead she listened to the steady thrum of Josie's heartbeat, letting it soothe her worry as the older woman recapped her week for her.

Alice could only really halfway pay attention to the woman's stories, and the guilt was quick to seize her when they finally arrived.

"I was going to say, 'see you next week'," Josie grabbed Jasper's waiting arm as she scooted herself out of the backseat. "But I'll see you when you get back from your trip."

Before Alice could ask 'what trip?' she could already see it; she'd be flying into Tuscaloosa Regional Airport sooner than she anticipated.

That was confirmation enough that when she called this Cynthia woman in the morning, she would likely be the real thing.

It was a scary thought, but also exhilarating.

Minutes later, after Jasper had already escorted Josie back to her apartment, he was back in the car. Turning around in the driver's seat he looked at her, concerned. "You going to stay back there for the drive?"

In seconds she was in the passenger's seat, taking his hand in her own and gripping it firmly.

They sat in silence for a majority of the drive. Jasper sent mild waves of calm and love toward her, and Alice sat there, eyes closed, basking in the warmth of his emotions. It was a welcome balm after the anxieties of the past few hours left her feeling off.

"This has really shaken you up," he commented as he pulled the car off of the highway and onto the backroad that led them toward their home. With his thumb he slowly started tracing shapes on the back of her hand. "What are you thinking right now?"

"I'm not going to know what to say to her."

"You've seen it, then." He shot her a sideways look. "You've seen that it's real." Alice nodded, swallowing. "Do you wish you'd opened that privately?"

"What? No, of course not." That was a silly thought. "I wouldn't have wanted to share that moment with anyone else. I'm glad I read it with you and Josie around. I just," she eyed the envelope that she'd stuck on the dashboard and had to refrain from clinging to it some more, "I wish I knew what to do."

"If you're going down to Tuscaloosa, it seems some part of you already knows what to do."

"True," she hummed, leaning her head back against the driver's seat as she stared out into the night. "What if I wait though? A few weeks can't hurt."

Truthfully, the most unnerving part of her potential visit to her probably-sister was that in her visions one thing had been clear: Jasper wouldn't be with her.

Until his probation period was up in a few weeks, he couldn't leave the state or fly—whether privately or commercially. The main parts of his resetting had been complete months ago. This period was to simply ensure his self-control had time to adapt before he integrated fully back into society and went back to work.

Thankfully, the rest of the mandatory resetting he was still forced to attend occurred during the weekdays; meaning his weekends and nights were free. It was a small gift to Alice when she was in town, but now that she was traveling all over, she'd missed him fiercely.

It felt ridiculous to finally be given time to spend with him again, only to jump on the first flight down south. Waiting for May wouldn't be _that_ hard to do…

"Alice. Go." There was a smile in his voice and Alice couldn't bring herself to meet his eyes. "If it really is your sister, I'll come along next time."

"It doesn't seem right without you," she grumbled, squeezing his hand as she stared out the window. Nothing that she did anywhere felt right without him by her side. But she wasn't about to tell him that.

"When do you leave?"

She shrugged. "I can't pinpoint it quite yet."

"After the weekend?" Alice nodded, fairly confident with that. "Then we'll at least have all weekend. Alice," he pulled at her arm slightly, beckoning for her to look at him. When she did he was smiling at her. "Don't stress yourself out over this. Josie's right. Either it's not your sister or it is. Either way, she sought you out. She wants to meet you. Don't you want to meet her?"

"Of course I do! But…" she sighed, "I don't want to go alone."

"Maybe Bella or Esme will have some time to spare." He offered. "You can call them up and ask."

"Not until I talk to this Cynthia person."

He nodded as he turned the car down their long driveway.

Alice stared at him then. For the years and years that she spent knowing and fearing his face, it was hard now to believe how she could look at him and feel nothing but love for him. There was nothing to fear here. Even as her eyes traced his scars, she found herself full of emotion, overwhelmed with how deeply she cared about him.

She still didn't understand how she had gotten so lucky.

He turned toward her and raised an eyebrow. "You're all over the place tonight."

"I love you." It was all she could think to say to explain her sudden influx of emotion.

He smiled his crooked smile at her and when she felt a wave of his own love, she smiled back.

And to think she'd fallen so hard for the man of her nightmares only served to amuse her nowadays.

Pulling into the garage Alice took note of the silent house; it was something she hadn't noticed before. Upon realizing they were fully alone, an idea sprung into her mind.

Picking up the letter, she held it close to her chest. "Where should I put this? I can hardly stick it on my shelf."

"We can lock it in the desk downstairs for safekeeping," he offered, putting the car into park and pocketing the keys. "You don't want to," he gestured toward the envelope, "I don't know, frame those pictures?"

"Not now. For now I just don't want it getting ruined."

He nodded and in minutes they were in the library.

He still didn't have access to the vast majority of resources he'd grown accustomed to throughout the years, but he was still allowed down there. Before he'd been allowed back home, passwords had been changed, specific files and databanks had been encrypted, and his digital allowances had been restricted.

He never once complained, but Alice knew he was itching to get back to work and to have his credentials restored.

Opening a drawer in his old desk he retrieved an old, large envelope, scribbling her name in the corner before sealing the letter from Cynthia inside and placing it back inside for safekeeping.

Alice knew that it was no safer inside the desk than it was sitting out on the kitchen island, but having it tucked away and out of sight made her feel ten times better.

As Jasper straightened up, turning toward her with a curious look on his face, Alice chewed the inside of her cheek, knowing that she had to go about this very carefully…

"Emmett doesn't get home until tomorrow night," she commented as she moved closer to him. Reaching out, she pushed the desk drawer closed fully before sitting herself up on the desk. Grabbing his hand she pulled him closer, spreading her knees as she tugged him between them. "We have the house to ourselves for most of the weekend." Then, just as she'd pulled him against the desk, she lifted her legs and wrapped them around his hips.

His hands moved to grip her thighs as she lifted her arms to hold onto his shoulders. She knew she was walking a dangerous line here. The chances of nothing coming of this attempt at seduction were alarmingly high, but she knew she had to at least try.

With ease she hoisted herself upward, using him as leverage.

"Alice," he warned, his deep voice hitching on her name as she wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. But Alice couldn't just hear his want, she could _feel_ it.

It hadn't taken her long, over the months, to figure out what exactly drove him mad. So thankfully she had a few tricks up her sleeves, and today she was determined to put in the work.

"Kiss me," she begged him, her voice taking on a slight whine. "Please, please kiss me."

She could almost feel his frustration in their kiss. His frustration with her usage of the whine she knew he couldn't resist, and his frustration with the fact that although she knew he wanted to take things further, he still was hesitant.

Gripping his hair she pulled him into the kiss and moaned, tightening her hold on him with her legs.

"Fuck," he whispered against her lips, and then she was kissing him with renewed fervor.

Grabbing her thighs, he pulled her against him. The sudden fiction caused her to gasp sharply. " _Jazz_ —"

"Fuck, Alice," and then he was pulling his hands off of her thighs and moving them to encircle her waist. "Not tonight."

The sudden rejection was so painful that it stung. "But—" She didn't have time to complain before he was kissing her again. Only this time, it was less desperate…

"I had an episode today," he confessed, and Alice could _hear_ just how miserable this information made him. "I'm sorry."

 _Shit_. "No, I understand," she was shaking her head, forcing herself to come back into her own brain, trying hard not to think about how strong her desire was currently. But it was hard to ignore her arousal when Jasper's was still pressing against her.

He lowered her back onto the desk before letting his head flop forward onto her shoulder. As he let out a shuddering breath Alice removed her vice grip from his hair, instead letting her fingertips lightly scratch at his scalp. _I love you_ , Alice thought pointedly, knowing he could feel it. _I love you, I love you, I love you._

"I want to," he assured her, breathing shakily as he moved his hands from her waist to her neck, "I want to so badly," and in that moment, Alice saw it. If she pushed just a little further, if she said just the right thing, he would indulge her finally, right here and now.

But Jasper was shaking in her arms, and she knew he was still so afraid of hurting her.

And if he'd had an episode as recently as that very day, him hurting her was very much still within the realm of possibility.

Alice had recently begun to learn to be selfish, but she couldn't do that to him. That would be beyond selfish. And if he really lost control, not only would he potentially never forgive himself, but without anyone around to intervene she could be really, truly hurt.

"I know," she breathed, " _I'm_ sorry. I saw that there was a chance and I…" she swallowed, feeling horrible at what she almost just forced to happen. "I almost pushed for it anyways."

He kissed her nose before catching her lips in a deep, but now careful, kiss. "Don't feel bad. It's nothing I don't want."

"When is the last time you had an episode before this?" As far as she'd been aware, it had been weeks since his last one. It had also been the longest period since Skye's influence had begun to wear off many months ago. Even still, traces of the effects lingered.

"The Tuesday after you left," he nodded, confirming her suspicion that his last episode had been the last one she'd already known about.

"Was it bad? Today, I mean." She kept her fingers moving in his hair, knowing how much he liked it when she scratched his scalp.

He hummed and shook his head all at once. "It only lasted a few seconds. Nothing visual. Just a little bit of an auditory hallucination. I thought Esme was in the room for a moment. No taunts, nothing severe."

Alice brightened at this information. "That's good," she encouraged. And it was.

The first time they'd attempted anything beyond simple kissing was the night he'd been allowed back home, last November. They'd been half-undressed when a hallucination took hold of him.

He hadn't hurt her, but it must've been on his mind. Alice hadn't even noticed a change in him, far too caught up in the sensations she was experiencing for the first time, but the instant he'd put his hands around her neck Edward had barged in, Emmett on his tail.

They'd had to drag Jasper from the room by his throat—while he snarled and screamed and shook—leaving Alice half-naked and frozen on her couch.

That had been their closest call. But ever since, Jasper knew that he had to do things the smart way, no matter how badly she knew he wanted to make love to her.

She felt herself flush with both want and embarrassment as she thought about how badly she wanted him.

"Soon then, huh?" She tried to lighten the mood, but her disappointment was still prevalent.

"Maybe," he sighed, and Alice knew he was just as disappointed. "Maybe if I can make it another month without one, we'll give it a try."

She brightened at that, pulling back from him enough to force him to lift his head and look at her. "A month then," she smiled softly up at him. "That's good." It was the first time he'd given her a time range or a deadline to look forward to. "Fingers crossed, then."

He pressed a kiss to her forehead before sighing. "I suppose you can't just look toward next month and see if we'll be in the clear yet or not?" His frustration was evident in his voice now, too.

Alice stifled a laugh. "I wish." The reminder that they were both equally upset by the fact that couldn't be intimate yet made her feel just the barest hint better.

"No use speculating then," pulling back he grabbed her hands and led her off the desk. "How was your day?"

Then, the reminder of what happened in Ithaca made her mood sour.

"Uh-oh," he grimaced. "That bad?"

"Let's go upstairs," she adjusted her grip on his hand as she led him out of the library. She didn't want to be the one to tell him, but she supposed tonight was going to be one of those rotten nights where they were forced to talk about the war again.

Of course, they'd talked about it at length, but as long as there were gaps in Jasper's waking memory and time left unaccounted for, there was going to be things left to uncover.

Alice knew that a lot of these things weren't going to be good.

As she led him through her bedroom door he took the lead, ushering her toward her couch. This had became their routine throughout their time together. If she could get away with it, Alice would spend weeks at a time snuggled up against Jasper on the soft, white couch. Realistically speaking, she knew they would at least lie there together for the remainder of the night.

"What's on your mind?" He pressed a kiss against her temple.

"You first," she whispered, content with just lying there in his arms.

He sighed, running a hand along her neck. It was the second time his hand traced the same pattern that Alice knew what he was running his fingers along.

To her surprise, the scar on her neck had faded pretty decently, all except for a small mark on the left side of her neck. The point of impact, Jasper had referred to it as. Venom was what caused the scar, and when it came to limbs and appendages ripped off, when teeth were involved the likelihood for scarring increased exponentially.

You could only really see the scar if you looked for it. But the point of impact, where Jasper had dug his teeth into her neck last October, was a glaring mark on the otherwise smooth skin of her neck.

"It's hard," he began slowly, "feeling as if I even deserve to make love to you sometimes. After all, I've hurt you this badly. It makes me wonder how any amount of pleasure is supposed to make up for the pain I've caused you."

"Jazz…"

"Forty years of fear, Alice. That's not something I can reverse."

"I'm not asking you to," she lifted her head, frowning at his miserable expression. "Just be with me now."

He breathed in slowly, and then exhaled. "For as long as you want me."

"Forever, remember?"

The corner of his mouth twitched up slightly at that. "If you say so."

She moved to poke his ribs then, but his hands caught hers too quickly. "Quit it."

Lifting her hand he pressed a kiss against her knuckles before gripping her hand and holding it against his chest. "Your turn," he finally glanced down at her. "What happened today that's got you so down?"

Alice swallowed. "I did a entry interview for a man who claims you turned him."

Jasper blinked down at her, stunned. "That's the first I've heard about something like that."

"I think he's the first to come forward. And he almost didn't."

Alice recapped the interview with him. Recalling how the kid almost kept the information entirely to himself, commenting on how he feared her bias would effect the outcome of his interview, and speculating what would happen now.

"I talked to Kollie a little before I left. The information will only leave the paperwork if the kid decides to talk about it himself."

"That's his right." Jasper was already resigned to the possibility.

"I don't know if he will. Not anytime soon at least."

"Should you be telling me this?" He pulled her closer against him. "Or do you not care about breaking the rules anymore?"

"I only break rules when it's for the greater good," she argued, "and you'll find out anyways. I think Carlisle and Rose have begun to expect that I tell you everything." That reminded her. "Speaking of, you should probably unblock her number soon. She was not happy on Wednesday."

"Did you tell her you told me to?" He spoke with a tick of annoyance.

"It may have slipped my mind…" It was his turn to attempt to poke at her ribs. Alice laughed, shifting before he could tickle her. "Stop," she giggled, "she's just going to harass you about the _Times_ article."

"Why _me_? It's about you."

"And it also ends with an opened ended 'when will Jasper Whitlock finally be held accountable for his actions' question," she reminded him. They'd talked a little bit on the phone the other night, after the article had been out for nearly a full day. Two things had come from that conversation.

First, was that Alice really had to be careful now. That meant being as professional as possible in public, playing up the politician role in a way that would make Rosalie proud, and finding a way to keep up her ongoing public support.

Second, was that Jasper agreed with just about everything these people said about him.

And that wasn't good.

People were divided on how they felt about him. And that divide wasn't slight. Half of the country was either apathetic or empathetic to his experience in the war; meaning they felt for him or they didn't care. The other half of the country wanted either his presence removed from office, or his head removed from his shoulders.

"It's a valid question."

"You're almost through with probation," she reminded him, "so these people need to get over it."

"It's not that simple. I worked for decades to establish trust with these countries. Reestablishing it is not going to be easy this time around; and it wasn't easy the first time."

Alice nodded. "Now, everyone is being called into question."

"After we stabilize, and after the economy bounces back, earning the people's trust will be the biggest focus. For years, most likely."

"I've barely been here a year," she thought as she closed her eyes.

"And what a year it's been." Pressing his face against her head, he inhaled deeply. "What a year, indeed."

This time last year she'd been tiptoeing around him, equal parts horrified and intrigued by the fact that her mind could show her both visions of her death at his hands, as well as visions of everything she now found herself craving from him.

Now, she was looking forward to spending forever at his side.

"I love you," she sighed, knowing there was no place she'd rather be.

There was that same warmth from before, but there was a sadness underneath it all, just barely detectable in the air. "I love you, too."

It wouldn't be an easy forever, but it was theirs, and that's what mattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Sagittarius season! It's been one hell of a month for me, and I'm sure a lot of you all as well. Especially considering the fact that the first week of November felt like an entire month all on its own. Shoutout to this stupid country (USA) for kicking that dumb fuckin bigot to the curb finally; never been more relieved to see a (different) creepy white man secure the highest office in the land. Anyways...
> 
> This is the longest chapter yet! Over 7k words! I don't think you guys get another long chapter like this one for a good while now, so enjoy it. Be sure to follow me on Tumblr to see bonus things here and there, and feel free to send me a message over there if you're ever looking to chat about this series or any of my other fics. I participated (partially) in whumptober and (fully) in Jalice Week on Tumblr. You can find all of these fics on, you guessed it, Tumblr! (at flowerslut, like always) But you can also access all my Jalice week contributions here on AO3, too.  
> One of my Jalice Week contributions is my current side-project, starring feral newborn!Alice and clueless human!Jasper, so I recommend checking that one out. One of my whumptober contributions was a CotN alternative-ending type scene... so if you want to suffer while reading what could have been... be my guest!
> 
> Also! In addition to my writing hobby I am also a singer/songwriter and recently released a new song in September that I keep forgetting to tell you guys to check out! If you're willing to throw some cents my way via iTunes, Spotify, or Apple Music, you can go to my Instagram (at shutupmaybe) and click one of the MANY links available in my bio to stream (or buy!) Double Yellow Line today!
> 
> Thanks for reading, I fully appreciate all comments and kudos, and I'll see you guys next month!


	4. Chapter 4

Alice waited until close to 9 o’clock in the morning before calling the number on the letter.

A woman answered on the second ring and what followed next was the most nerve-wracking two minutes of her life.

They didn’t speak much. Just long enough for Alice to introduce herself, for Cynthia to reply with her enthusiastic (and stunned) excitement, and for the two women to set a date for Alice to come and visit. She would visit for a few days, Alice promised, and the vision of her flight leaving on Tuesday afternoon solidified in her mind before the conversation was over and the date was set.

She played the conversation carefully, not wanting Cynthia to know she didn’t remember her, but also not wanting to seem skeptical of the woman. She was relieved enough that Cynthia called her Alice and not Mary-Alice, but it did make her wonder if she was just being polite. Alice had corrected many interviewers over the last year that it was “Alice, just Alice.”

Either this woman had known her as ‘just Alice’ when they were younger, or she was smart enough to pay attention to the media well enough that she could get away with lying through the phone.

But those photos…

Even Jasper acknowledged that the photographs looked authentic. While it was easier to replicate older photos than it was newer, higher-quality ones, he had to agree with what Josie had said the other day. “It does look like the same frown you have.”

She’d been off the phone for barely two minutes with Cynthia before she was calling Bella.

When the girl didn’t pick up, Alice frowned and checked her future. And when her future didn’t come to her Alice had to remind herself that things were okay. She was just in Washington state with Edward, and they were probably with Jacob or some other wolf.

Instead, she called Edward. And when Bella picked up almost immediately, Alice laughed in lieu of a greeting.

“ _Hello?_ ”

“Where is your phone?” Alice grinned. “I just tried calling you.”

“ _It’s dead_ ,” she sounded put-out by that. “ _Someone only packed one charger_ ,” her words were pointed to what Alice could only imagine was Edward.

“You could just buy another.”

“ _I don’t need to accumulate more wires. I swear we have a dozen at home._ ”

“More than that, probably,” Alice agreed, leaning back in her seat. She was currently in the den, her feet up on the coffee table in front of her. Esme would probably scold her for that, but as long as it was her and Jasper at home alone, she was going to enjoy the opportunity to stretch out in the silence. “Hows your trip?”

“ _It’s going really well actually,_ ” and Bella sounded happy to report that. Alice smiled at the sound, wishing she could at least see in her mind where Bella was currently lounging. “ _We’ll be in Vancouver for most of next week, but right now we’re back in my old hometown. I’m actually in my old living room right now._ ”

“Ooo,” that absolutely intrigued Alice. “How’s it look?”

“ _Like it needs some real love,_ ” Bella sighed. “ _The wallpaper’s starting to separate from the wall. It’s kind of sad, actually_.”

“Are you going to be there long enough to do any remodeling?” Alice recalled how Bella wanted to renovate her father’s old house after the war. They might still be a bit busy for a full remodel though.

“ _Nah. Just going through some old things. There’s a lot of stuff we need to clear out. I’m just doing a deep clean and then we’re donating a bunch of furniture and things. I guess they’re antiques at this point,_ ” she mused. “ _Hey—no_ ,” Alice could hear her move the phone from her head and call across the room. “ _We are_ keeping _that! Sorry,_ ” and she was speaking to Alice again. “ _I’m having help from some friends and they are being, well. Not exactly_ helpful.”

Alice smiled widely at that. “Hopefully it gets the job done.”

Bella scoffed. “ _Yeah, I hope. What’s up on your end?_ ”

Alice chewed her lip for a few seconds before saying the only thing she could verbalize. “I learned that I have a sister.”

“ _What?! What do you mean?_ ”

“Exactly what it sounds like. Her name is Cynthia. She sent me a letter with some pictures of me when I was younger. Human.”

“ _Oh, my god, Alice. This is incredible! Wow!_ ”

Alice laughed nervously, leaning back into the couch and pulling her feet up. It felt strange to say it out loud. “Wow is right.”

“ _How are you feeling? I’m sure that’s a shock._ ”

“I’m,” she paused, “I’m not sure how I’m feeling yet. I’m nervous, I think. But I am happy. It just feels… strange.”

“ _I’m sure, especially with you not remembering your old life. Are you going to write back?_ ”

“She left a phone number. I actually got off the phone with her a few minutes ago.”

“ _Alice! This is amazing! I’m so happy for you!_ ”

She smiled at that, trying to siphon some of Bella’s excitement to use for herself. She _was_ excited, but she was still in too much shock to feel much of anything currently. “Thanks, it’s really something.”

Bella paused. “ _Okay, what’s up? You don’t sound happy at all._ ”

“I am! Jazz thinks she might be phony.”

“ _And what do you think?_ ”

“I think she’s real!” She insisted quickly. “I’ll be visiting her this week and everything.”

“ _Oh_ ,” Bella blurted out. “ _That’s pretty sudden._ ”

“I don’t want to wait any longer than I have to,” Alice insisted, feeling put out at the abrupt change in Bella’s tone. “I want to meet her as soon as I can. I’m just sad—well, I’m _disappointed_ because,” she sighed, “I wanted Jasper to come with me.”

Bella sighed, “ _I wish I could come, but I have my entire week booked up. But Alice, what will you do if she is a fraud?_ ”

“She’s _not_ —”

“ _Alice, be realistic for a second. Have you seen this woman outside the old pictures she sent?_ ” Alice didn’t reply, instead letting her mood sour as her friend spoke. She especially wasn’t about to say that she actually had no clue what the woman looked like. “ _I’m not trying to kill your excitement, but there’s always a chance she’s some random person who spent time looking up old photos for something resembling you. Most of us have been through it before._ ”

“Bella,” Alice felt like crying. “I know there’s the chance that this could all be some sick joke or a ruse or—or something!” The idea had haunted her all night. “But this could also be real! My real _family_!” Leaning her head forward on her knees she closed her eyes tight. “My real flesh and blood—well, so to speak. Even if there’s consequences—or if I’m made a fool of—I need to do this. If there’s a chance I can have someone living, breathing, and from my human life, in my own immortal life, I have to jump on this now.” She paused for a few seconds, and when Bella remained silent, she clenched her teeth together. “Tell me you wouldn’t do the same.” She demanded.

There was an odd moment of silence, then. The quiet only made Alice more upset.

After several long seconds, Alice heard Bella’s long sigh carry over the phone. Just barely, she could hear the sound of footsteps across the receiver. Then, Edward’s voice chimed in.

“ _Let me come._ ”

Alice rolled her eyes then. Bella hadn’t said anything out loud; she must have moved her shield in order to fill Edward in on their conversation quicker, and quieter.

“ _I mean it. If she’s lying I’ll know._ ”

“Some moral support would be nice,” Alice supplied meekly, relief slowly falling over her. “Okay, yeah,” relenting, her vision from Tuesday suddenly changed, folding Edward’s presence into her plans. She’d have to call Cynthia back up and tell her that she’d have a guest upon their first meeting.

She hoped the woman wouldn’t mind.

“Thank you,” she sighed, tucking the vision into the back of her mind to discuss with Jasper later that morning. “I mean it.”

“ _Don’t mention it_ ,” Edward spoke, sounding much closer to the phone, and to Bella, this time. “ _I’m not letting someone mess with you if they aren’t the real thing._ ”

Alice nodded, knowing he couldn’t see her. It was true. Edward’s presence there would be the only confirmation she would really need. “So, how did Bella get stuck with all of the meetings next week and you happen to have the ability to come on a little trip with moi?”

Bella snorted. “ _Oh, he’s been kept plenty busy around here. He’s dying to get a break, too._ ”

“ _I was going to be home next week anyways_ ,” Edward spoke. “ _Now I can finish up my business here and expedite the process of getting the hell out of this state._ ”

There was laughter that rang out in the background, and Alice had to smile at the sound. Whatever ‘friends’ were helping Bella with her father’s house seemed to be getting on Edward’s last nerve.

And anyone who could adequately do that was alright in her book.

Flickering through her visions, Alice watched Jasper’s future for a few seconds. He was out filling the tank of her rental. He’d be returning it for her and then would take a walk to the edge of town and go for a quick run, and then a quicker hunt.

With him gone for the time-being, it was as good of a time as any to fill them in on her findings in Ithaca.

“ _Alice_ ,” Edward already sounded annoyed at her, “ _you can’t be telling Jasper everything._ ”

“And give me a damn good reason why not?” If it had to do with him directly there was no way she was going to keep things from him.

“ _Because he’s still on probation and he’s not supposed to know anything about any of these cases. You don’t tell Josie this stuff, do you?_ ”

“Josie is an eighty-three-year-old human who spends her time watching Judge Judy and collecting pashminas.” She deadpanned. “Jasper is one of us.”

“ _What Edward is trying to say_ ,” Bella cut him off before he could continue to bicker with her, “ _is that we know you want to keep him updated, but you have to at least try to play by the rules here._ ”

“That’s some bullshit,” she spoke bluntly. “For months now I feel like all anyone does is pick and choose what rules to follow and what laws to obey and then suddenly I want to tell Jasper about something that directly involves him and _I’m_ the bad guy?” She knew her frustration was getting the best of her, but she couldn’t contain it. It was infuriating. “We can lie to the public about what happened, but it has to be a specific lie. And oh, no. I can’t give any input because what information do _I_ have? I mean, I’m the newbie. I’m in training. What could I possibly know? Oh, wait. That’s right! The _future_.”

“ _I’m not arguing with you—_ ”

“Because you know I’m _right?_ ”

“ _Because I know you’ll win_ ,” Bella relented, sounding tired.

“ _Alice_ ,” Edward called her attention back toward him, “ _just last week I sat in a meeting with thirty-two various human politicians and leaders. Almost every single one of them wants change processes halted_ indefinitely _. I had to stare down dozens of people while they all-but-said ‘we don’t want anymore vampires’._ ” There was a beat of silence. “ _Not temporarily. Not until people rebuild and recover. They mean entirely. No more changing_.”

Alice was shocked. “Can they do that?”

“ _Yes. And they will if we don’t do a good enough job with damage control. That’s why you can’t pull stunts like the one you did in Boston. They need to see us showing up, and listening, and caring about their losses, too_.”

Oh.

“But, we… there aren’t even many of us left… how are we supposed to… to do anything?” She couldn’t wrap her head around the idea of cities and states halting change processes.

The numbers were still fluctuating as they collected final body counts, but somewhere between sixty-four and seventy-five percent of their vampire population was dead and gone.

It didn’t sound real, when she thought about it. But it was. Scarily so.

With the sudden population decrease, vital vampire-owned businesses had closed, hundreds of centers had ceased proper functioning, and those that had survived or avoided the carnage were left struggling. There was still a blood shortage in nineteen cities that Alice knew of off the top of her head. Not including small towns where there weren’t centers.

Displacement had become another huge issue. By law, vampires needed to reside within a certain perimeter of their assigned center. As centers shut down, it caused vampires to suddenly be living out of legal range. Now, people were struggling to uproot their lives in an attempt at flocking to the next-closest center. And some were refusing. Which meant that there was a historic number of vampires suddenly residing in places against their most basic regulations.

It was a huge nightmare, in every way.

Alice finally found her words. “If we aren’t continuing to change people—I mean, if we don’t eventually resume Change then how is any of this sustainable?” How could any of their lives ever return to anything comfortable to any extent? It didn’t seem possible.

“ _It’s not sustainable,_ ” Edward’s voice was grim. “ _There are ideas—stray thoughts persistent in many of these people’s minds—and none of them are kind. The humans know they have the upper hand. They can easily make it so that suddenly everything about our laws and regulations are fully in their control_.”

“Can’t we do anything about it—can’t Carlisle or Esme do anything?”

“ _We need to stand_ with _their leaders. For any of us to stand against the government would be seen as treasonous._ ”

Just another reminder of how little power they really had as Protectors.

“How are we supposed to mediate between humans and vampires if humans don’t want us around anymore? How are we supposed to Protect everyone?”

“ _How indeed…_ ” Edward mused. Alice decided then that she hated how defeated he sounded. “ _That’s why we need to keep things under wraps. Meetings and interviews and examinations don’t get discussed unless necessary. We need to be responsive to criticism but not to the extent where all we’re doing is people-pleasing._ ”

“ _We have to tread carefully,_ ” Bella agreed. “ _We can’t tell humans their fear of us is misplaced, but we need to try and control where their fear is directed_.”

And Alice knew that now, most of their fear was still directed toward Jasper. Which was why her overall image was starting to shift slightly in the media. Whereas before, her positive influence had begun to affect the way their society viewed Jasper, now, in this scary post-war world, it was the opposite.

“They can speculate all they want about me,” Alice spoke quietly, feeling distraught with her train of thought, “but I can’t have them choosing Jasper to unite against.” Not again. She _knew_ that he couldn’t go through that again, no matter what he said or how apathetic he tried to come off as. Alice knew that if they succeeded in vilifying Jasper again, it would end horrifically.

“ _It’s only the beginning_ ,” Edward remarked, as if sensing where her thoughts were jumping to despite being thousands of miles away, “ _but the work we put in now is vital. The measures these humans are daydreaming about taking are only that right now—ideas quietly shared amongst a few—but they have to be stopped._ ” He paused. “ _No matter how much of a point they make._ ”

Alice nodded. He was right, and that’s what she hated.

She ended the call shortly after. She told him she’d call him with more specifics about their trip later, and after she hung up she spent a few minutes sifting through visions. She’d fly into Birmingham, meet Edward in Tuscaloosa’s Center—which was thankfully still standing and functioning—and they’d drive to Northport from there to meet Cynthia.

And from there…

Well, Alice could only hope for the best.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Capricorn season! It's time to relax, enjoy, and explore your surroundings. Don't push yourself into creative productivity if the well is empty! Rest your brain and let yourself play. When it's time to 'act' or 'produce' again, you'll know it.
> 
> Anyways, I don't quite remember this chapter ending on such a sad note. But that's the catch with a lot of these chapters apparently. Can't let y'all forget for too long that I'm an angst writer. Hope you're all having a great holiday season, and if not, I hope you remind yourself to give yourself the rest that your brain and body deserves! Thanks for all the love on this fic. In the next chapter, things start picking up...


	5. Chapter 5

It hadn’t taken her long to get used to driving everywhere, but now that Alice was flying again, she had to wonder why her fellow Protectors had _ever_ insisted she get her license in the first place. She now absolutely, one-hundred percent of the time, preferred to fly to her destinations than drive there.

It was quicker, too. So it only made more sense that she travel by air. Leaning back in her chair she did find the glances and stares from the other members of first-class to be a little bit off-putting, but it wasn’t anything persistent during the almost five-hour flight to Birmingham International Airport.

When she landed though… that was enough to remind her just _why_ flying everywhere wasn’t as convenient as she remembered.

And that was entirely due to the amount of people she came in contact with while flying.

Thankfully she hadn’t checked any luggage, because by the time she was briskly walking through the airport and toward the exit, people had already known she was on the way.

Now, she didn’t even look up as people lifted and pointed their phones at her. A group of teenagers wearing matching shirts quickly caught up with her, and she smiled politely, signed the backs of phone cases and smiled for the occasional selfie, but not once did she break stride. The second she stopped or hesitated, she knew a crowd would form, and people would gather to ask questions.

And the topic of the week was still her and Jasper.

“How’s he doing?” A scrunchie-wearing girl no older than fifteen whispered to Alice, struggling to keep pace with the tiny, fast-walking vampire.

It was clear who the girl was referring to. Alice smiled kindly, “He’s hanging in there,” she winked. In her mind, and thanks to her visions, she knew that was the only genuine answer she’d be giving to any of the people she’d encounter from there on out.

And thankfully there were only a small handful of people with cameras waiting outside.

They snapped countless photos and asked invasive questions, but Alice ignored most of them, smiling toward a few people as she made her way to the black SUV waiting to bring her to Tuscaloosa’s Center. It was an hour-long drive, and as she focused on Edward’s future—he was flying into Tuscaloosa’s Regional Airport, landing any minute there—she knew he would make it to the center only minutes before her.

It was all a ruse, mainly. None of them could fly anywhere without it being on the nightly news, and if the media saw that they were heading toward a Center, they wouldn’t think anything of it.

They would do a little work. Just barely. An impromptu inspection that Edward had already called ahead and informed them of. Her whole ‘finding family’ business was giving them a good enough excuse to see how this Center was doing. According to reports they were holding strong but it was still good to see for themselves.

They’d been far enough north that they hadn’t suffered the amount of losses that New Orleans had, but again; death reached near and far.

Eyeing her driver—a middle-aged woman who had introduced herself as Chloe—Alice wondered who she’d lost. At this rate, there wasn’t a human or vampire alive who didn’t personally know someone who had been killed.

Her mind went to Elias and her heart ached.

By the time they arrived at the Center, she was buzzing with excitement. Although she’d spoken to him fairly regularly, she hadn’t seen Edward in over a month.

He’d been in high demand amongst their coworkers. His mind-reading was proving to be their most valuable tool at the moment. After all, it was the only reason they knew first-hand that there was a dangerous amount of unrest simmering amongst the humans.

And they were certain that moles were still among them.

As the car pulled up to the Center and toward the main office, Alice couldn’t help but mentally shout. _EDWARD! I’M HERE EDWARD! HEY EDWARD! GUESS WHO’S HERE?_ After all, she mused as she patiently waited for her chauffeur to park, it had been too long since she’d bothered him.

In her mind she watched as he approached a window overlooking the parking lot and rolled his eyes.

He met her in the lobby. “I heard you a mile away,” he joked as she skipped to his side. “But I appreciate the announcement.”

She grinned, sliding an arm around his back, hugging him with one arm as she held her bag with her other one. “You know you missed me.”

He returned the hug, smiling down at her. “Or something like that.”

“So, how’re things around here?” With her arm still wrapped around him, she started walking, leading them toward the elevators.

“So far, so good. And I mean really, really good.” When they stepped inside the waiting elevator doors, Alice stepped away from his side, expertly guessing their floor. “It really shouldn’t take more than an hour, ninety minutes max.”

“That’s a relief,” Alice sighed. The knowledge that any Center was still being self-sufficient felt like a miracle nowadays. “I want to get going.”

“Have you talked to Cynthia yet today?”

Alice nodded, “This morning before my flight. We just confirmed her address; she says she’ll be home all day and to give her a heads up when we’re done at work.”

It had been another awkward, short exchange. Alice was praying that conversation between the two of them would be a bit less clumsy once they were in person, but a nervous part of her brain warned her that there was a chance their stiff dialogue would be relentless.

“Relax,” Edward muttered under his breath as the elevator brought them to the fourth floor. “We still don’t even know if she’s real yet.”

“How is that supposed to help me relax?” She whispered, side-eyeing him as they began walking again. And when a young cadet approached her, introducing himself to her, their conversation was put on hold.

Thankfully, an hour had been a generous estimation and they’d been in and out quickly. People in this Center had been genuinely excited to meet her, and that subtle change in the way people had been perceiving her that week left her feeling freshly energized. By the time they were walking toward the parking lot, keys to one of the Center vehicles swinging around Edward’s finger, Alice felt like skipping again.

“I wish you could hear them,” he commented as she closed the car door behind her. “I know they were happy to see you, but they were thoroughly terrified at first.”

“Of me?”

He laughed, starting the car. The radio in the car started blasting music and Alice jumped in her seat, startled. Whoever had driven this car last had apparently been attempting to blow the speakers out. Edward reached forward, turning down the volume while grinning. “No way. You’re as terrifying as a box full of kittens.” Alice rolled her eyes at that. “They were fully expecting us to show up and shut the place down.”

“Why?”

Edward half-shrugged. “We’ve shut enough places down in the past couple of months that almost all of these Centers are worried about it. Even ones in good condition, like this one.” Alice watched as he decided he didn’t care for the song on the radio and turned the entire stereo off.

“How have they been down South?”

“You mean in Mexico?” Alice nodded. “Gerardo should be coming up for a visit sometime this month or next, actually. You’ll be able to meet him and Ana, at least.”

It was an interesting thing to look forward to. Although the scandal of Jasper’s ‘returning’ to Maria’s side was a major event that the population had been forced to come to terms with, Mexico was dealing with a scandal arguably worse.

Because one of their Protectors had been a mole.

Manuel Flores had been presumed dead before the war had taken place. The continent had mourned his loss; even Carlisle had brought it to the nation’s attention back during her first public appearance.

His disappearance had been both a diversion as well as a betrayal.

It was due to his involvement that the largest death toll had taken place around the gulf; in both Mexico and in the US.

Alice shuddered thinking about what the finalized numbers from New Orleans would end up being…

She’d heard enough from Bella and Edward how horrific the scenes down there had been. The stories she’d heard made her and Jasper’s battle in Toronto seem like a mild little skirmish.

Then, a vision of Edward sighing: “ _You’re doing it again_.”

 _Am not,_ she thought pointedly, before he could even open his mouth to speak the words. The rest of their conversation took place entirely in her mind.

_“Yes, you are. With the whole ‘only thinking about death’ thing.”_

_Thirteen months ago I only thought about sewing. Thirteen months ago I’d only ever seen death in my mind, not firsthand._ She paused in her mental tirade as she watched him switch around what he was going to say next. _Thirteen months ago I’d never killed someone before_.

Her hands suddenly felt very, very heavy. Shaking them she stuck them between her thighs, trying to focus on the texture of her pants.

Another vision. “ _It’s a lot to take in, I know.”_ Edward hesitated, and then decided against saying that, then decided on: _“You should talk to Bella about this more, the next chance you get.”_

 _Bella is too busy,_ Alice pointed out, annoyed.

Out loud, Edward sighed and spoke. “Bella knows more than anyone else what it feels like to have your entire world turned completely around in a small amount of time.” He turned his head toward her. “I think you forget that the War of 64’ happened less than a year after she got out of self-control training and took her oath.”

Alice hadn’t forgotten that fact, but she hadn’t drawn the comparison until now.

“Not too much to compare outside of that.” He acquiesced.

“Hm,” Alice nodded, “you two were already married by then, right?”

Edward nodded in confirmation. “The October before.” A slow, wicked smirk spread across his features then. “Rosalie was not happy about it being on her birthday.”

Alice gasped, reaching out and smaking his arm. “You _didn’t_.”

“Well, a day before,” he confessed, to Alice’s horror. “We usually have to alternate vacations every other year. Two years ago Bella and I went on an anniversary trip to Spain. Last year would’ve been Rosalie and Emmett’s turn to go on a birthday vacation but,” he half-shrugged, still grinning, entirely faking his guilt, “they’ll get this fall by default.”

“You! Are! A! Brat!” She punctuated every word with another smack against his arm. “You absolutely did that on purpose didn’t you?”

“Bella wanted an autumn wedding,” he shrugged, still smirking devilishly.

“You better hope Jasper and I don’t get married or I’ll have it on _your_ birthday. See how it feels!” She folded her arms and pouted.

She could _feel_ Edward’s bewildered gaze boring into the side of her head. “That’s a weird way of phrasing that. Yikes.”

She pouted, refusing to look at him.

“Does Jasper know you don’t want to marry him?”

“I—what! Don’t word it like that. That makes me sound bad.”

“You just said ‘you better hope Jasper and I don’t get married’ as if it’s some outlandish threat. Or as if marrying him would be something you’d only do to get back at me.”

Alice groaned, “Not you, too…”

“What?” He blinked at her innocently, flicking the blinker on as he merged into another lane.

“Josie put you up to this didn’t she,” she accused, turning to fully glare at him. “I don’t know what everyone’s obsession with marriage is. It’s just a piece of paper. That’s what Jasper’s says anyways.”

“Ah,” he nodded, “okay then.”

Alice narrowed her eyes, not liking that response at all. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He exhaled slowly, shrugging. “I would’ve guessed you’d want an excuse to have a party where everyone dresses nicely and celebrates you and Jasper.”

Alice stared at him. “What?”

Edward full-on gaped at her for a moment. The car swerved and he had to rip his attention off of her and back toward the road. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me. I know you know what a wedding is.”

“Yeah, and they’re weird as hell.”

“Oh, my god. Alice, no.” He laughed, seeing what her image of a wedding was in her mind. But the only exposure she’d ever had was with the awkward, overdramatic acting in the soap operas Josie used to enjoy watching. She didn’t want some weird priest droning on about biblical crap while people in the audience sat by looking bored. “We need to get you to a real wedding. They aren’t what you’re picturing at all.”

She shot him a suspicious look. “Don’t people just get married without a wedding?”

He laughed again, “You sound like Bella.”

“I forget you had to convine her to marry you.”

He scoffed. “She needs to stop telling people that.”

“And I can’t believe _you_ of all people are lecturing me on not wanting to get married.”

“I’m not lecturing you at all! I just think if you had some decent exposure to what modern weddings are like you’d already be planning one.”

“I do not see the point,” she reiterated. But in the back of her mind she was curious. She didn’t want to think about the fact that the only reason she’d sided with Jasper on the whole ‘marriage seems redundant’ topic was because she knew weddings were a painfully awkward hassle. A waste of time that was more trouble than they were worth.

And she also didn’t want to think about the fact that she _did_ want to see what a modern wedding entailed…

Because the man sitting beside her would just say ‘I told you so.’

“I didn’t say it.” He was ginning again, staring straight through the windshield. “And I won’t say it when you and Jasper end up engaged. I swear.”

“All those titles and status’ are so arbitrary though,” she wined, pouting again. “I already know Jasper and I are going to be together forever. Why go through all that effort?”

“On a scale from one to ten how silly do you feel referring to Jasper as your ‘boyfriend’.”

“I hate you.” Because the answer was eleven, and she felt childish every time the word fell from her mouth.

She had to admit, _husband_ had a much more mature ring to it.

But before he could gather another breath to speak, Alice had whacked him again. “Be quiet you traitor.”

No matter how much she loved her co-Protectors, and even though she referred to Bella as her ‘best friend’, it was moments like this that made her realize that she was infinitely closer to Edward than anyone else she knew.

“Bella would be upset if you ever said that.”

“I didn’t say it, I _thought_ it.” It didn’t matter either; Bella could be her best friend still. But Edward was like the brother she never had.

Speaking of siblings.

Alice glanced at the GPS, “How far are we?”

“Nearly there.” As if emphasizing their proximity, he began to slow down as he maneuvered the car around the neighborhood they found themselves in.

And with a few flickers ahead of her, Alice was suddenly so nervous she couldn’t think. The moment the house was in view, she sat up straight and panicked. “Actually, I don’t know if I can do this.”

Edward looked at her like she had two heads. “Cut it out. We’re here.”

“No, I mean it. I’m serious. I don’t want to do it anymore.”

“Alice,” pulling up to the home, he parked the car against the curb, right by the mailbox. “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s going to be fine. You _know_ it’s going to be fine,” he pointed out, knowing that if something bad was going to happen there was a likely chance she’d see it.

So far, the only flickers she was getting were of a friendly and enjoyable afternoon.

And that was what unsettled her.

“No,” she insisted stubbornly. “Let’s go home. I can come back with you and Jasper both when his probation is up.” She reached over to where Edward had taken the keys out of the ignition and placed them on the center console. Quickly, she started the car back up. “Come on. Let’s go,” she gestured toward the road ahead of them.

Edward pulled the keys back out of the ignition, sighing as he exited the car, pocketing the keys. “Edward!” She shrieked. And then, realizing how loud she was being, she snapped her mouth shut. “Edward,” she hissed quietly as she watched him walk around to the passenger side. “Edward _no_ —”

When he moved to open her door, she locked it. And for several long seconds they played with the locks. Edward unlocking the doors with the key fob, only for Alice to immediately lock it back up.

Eventually he leaned his head against the window and glared. “I didn’t come all this way just for you to chicken out.”

As he spoke, Alice’s eyes flickered to the house behind him, watching attentively as the door slowly swung open and a woman emerged.

Her expression caused Edward to stop, straighten up, and turn. And then Alice could see her so much clearer.

The woman had shoulder-length, dark brown hair, silver strands streaked throughout. Her eyes were wide as she stared toward them, also brown in color. Her smile lines (and the grey hairs) gave away her age, but she looked good for being in her mid-fifties.

There was no recognition, no old bells ringing in Alice’s brain, as she stared at the woman. She was both a stranger as well as her sister. And even without the full confirmation Alice simply knew somehow.

Because this woman looked just like her.

When Edward unlocked the car again and reached out to open the door, Alice let him. And when he reached out for her hand, she took it robotically, her eyes still glued to the woman standing on the porch the same way her eyes were stuck on them.

Closing the door behind her, Edward placed his hand on Alice’s back and began to move the both of them forward. “Hi,” he called out, and Alice could hear the grin on his voice. “You must be Cynthia.” Lightly, he pinched the center of her back with his fingertips, and Alice shook herself free from her haze.

But even as she gathered the breath to speak, she couldn’t think of anything to say.

First impressions were important, she reminded herself, Rosalie’s words echoing through her brain. But this wasn’t a first impression she was making here. This woman already knew her. This woman—her _sister—_ had memories of her.

When they reached the porch Edward stepped forward, extending his hand and smiling kindly. “Edward Masen,” he introduced himself. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Holmes.”

“Oh, please,” and Alice could both hear how he’d flustered her. The woman’s very human response to Edward’s boyish charm served to pull her back into the present just a little bit more. “Cynthia is fine.”

“Cynthia,” Alice spoke softly, drawing the woman’s attention back to her. But what else could be said? Long time no see? How are you? Introducing herself felt ridiculous. This woman knew who Alice was, and Alice was supposed to know who she was.

But she didn’t.

And she had a feeling that that revelation wouldn’t be a kind one.

Tears sprang into the woman’s eyes as she stepped forward, off of the porch and toward Alice.

“Oh, Mary-Alice,” and then the woman was hugging her, and crying. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she pulled back after a few seconds but kept a firm grip on Alice’s shoulders as she stared down at her. “I’m a mess, I know. I told myself I wouldn’t do this.” She laughed, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I’m finally taller than you,” she smiled.

Alice couldn’t help but laugh lightly at that. It felt like Cynthia was reminding her of an old joke that she had no recollection of. The laughter was the correct reply apparently.

“Come, come,” wiping her tears with the back of her hand she gestured toward the house. “I don’t want to make a scene,” the muttered quietly as she quickly moved back onto the porch, beckoning them as she moved. “You’ve come a long way. I bet you’re tired from your flight.”

Alice raised an eyebrow, shooting Edward a bewildered expression as they followed the woman.

“Thank you,” Edward responded politely before silence could seize them. “We’re used to traveling though. It isn’t too big of a trip.”

“Of course not, always so busy.” The woman hummed as they followed her through a foyer and into a sitting room. “Please, make yourselves comfortable. I—” she hesitated, faltering with her words. “Let me go turn the stove off, just a moment.” She disappeared around the corner then.

Alice and Edward exchanged a look then. It was apparent they were the first vampire guests this woman had ever hosted in her home.

She’d been about to offer them something to drink.

Edward was stifling a laugh when Cynthia re-entered the room.

“Your home is lovely,” Alice spoke up, forcing her attention off of her sister and around the room. There were a few paintings on the walls, a couple of house plants gracing the corners of the room. Either the house was new or the walls had been recently painted; things were very neat and clean.

“Thank you,” the sound of children’s laughter from outside caused Cynthia’s head to turn. “We’ve been in this house for almost a year now. The neighborhood is lovely, full of kids. They’re always running through the yard. It’s wonderful.”

“Do you have any children?” Edward asked, politely (as if he didn’t know the answer from plucking it out of her brain).

“Three,” she smiled widely, and Alice felt joy at the pride in the woman’s eyes. “They’re all grown now. My oldest lives outside of Montgomery with his wife and my only grandchild.” Reaching toward the side table, Cynthia grabbed a framed photo and smiled down at it, before offering it to them. “Kelsey Ann,” she beamed, proudly. “She’ll be nine on the thirtieth.”

“She’s beautiful,” Alice stared at the picture of the girl in awe. If Cynthia was her sister than this was her—she paused and thought for a moment—great niece.

“Sweetest little girl, too.” Accepting the frame back she sighed before placing it back on the table. “I wish they lived a little closer.” She gestured toward the leather couch behind them, “Please, make yourself at home.”

As Alice moved to sit, she eyed another small frame. Sitting down she picked it up carefully, eyeing the woman in the photo. “Who is this?”

There was silence then. When Alice looked back up to Cynthia she was staring at her with disbelief. “What?”

Alice swallowed thickly, suddenly realizing she’d already said something wrong. “The woman in this photo,” she placed it back down quickly. “She’s very beautiful.”

“That’s mom. I…” Cynthia paused, her mouth opening and closing as she fixed Alice with a concerned glance. “From before she and dad got married…” Her voice trailed off, and suddenly the tension in the room was thick.

Alice knew that she couldn’t hide it forever. “So, Cynthia. It’s important that you know,” she paused, trying to swallow the sudden the lump in her throat, “that I don’t remember anything about my human life,” she confessed softly, wanting to let the woman down as gently as possible.

“Nothing?” Her voice cracked and Alice watched as more tears sprung forth.

Alice shook her head. “I’m sorry.” She whispered.

Then, she almost asked _“So, you don't remember me?”_ But instead she stood up from the loveseat she’d found herself on. “I—excuse me for a minute…” And she was gone from the room in an instant.

Alice sat there, stunned into silence as her guilt overwhelmed her. Edward reached over and grabbed her hand, holding onto it tightly.

“This is the real deal,” he confirmed, his words too low to carry far. Squeezing her hand he offered her a sad smile. “That’s your sister.”

It wasn’t easy to ignore the sound of sniffling two rooms away. Alice wondered if Cynthia knew they could hear her, but doubted it when the woman began talking to herself, muttering pep talks and saying things like “it’s fine, it’s okay, pull yourself together.”

Her and Edward sat awkwardly awaiting her return. Then, a few minutes later, Cynthia was back, her face a little puffy but her eyes were clear and her cheeks were dry.

“I’m so sorry about that, I don’t know what came over me.”

“ _I’m_ sorry,” Alice insisted. “Memory loss is common during the change, but my case appears to be especially rare.”

“That explains why you just,” Cynthia waved a hand vaguely in the air, “vanished one day. So, what happened?” She asked bluntly. That’s when Alice took note of the handkerchief clutched between her hands. “Were you attacked?"

Oh, yeah. This woman definitely didn’t spend much time around vampires. It was horribly rude to ask a vampire how they were changed so casually. Of course, this was something Alice had learned after joining her fellow Protectors—either people would volunteer the information or they’d keep it to themselves.

But rule number one of vampire etiquette was not to ask about people’s change stories…

“I’m still unsure. It’s likely.” She smiled thinly, watching as Cynthia frowned, clearly left unsatisfied with that answer. Anticipating her follow up, Alice continued. “There was never an investigation either, so it’s been chocked up to an accident."

“That’s terrible,” the woman nodded, her frown deepening. Alice didn’t entirely think so, but she kept that to herself. “So you really don’t remember anything from your life?”

Alice shook her head. “I woke up with a blank slate.” She leaned forward in her seat, locking eyes with her sister. “I never knew where my family was. I only learned my full, legal name last year,” she confessed, wanting Cynthia to believe her. As long as she knew that Alice hadn’t abandoned her, she knew it would be okay. “I would’ve come looking if I knew where to begin.”

“When I got older and started asking questions Dad would tell me that you’d died in some accident.” She sighed, her voice still shaky. “He never went into specifics, but it makes sense now. He probably had no idea.”

The asylum paperwork begged to differ, but Alice held her tongue.

“I was a noisy kid. He probably just wanted to keep it vague enough that I would accept it for what it was. I just,” she paused and wiped at her eyes with her handkerchief again. “I’m so happy,” she smiled brightly then, “I can’t believe you’re still around. It’s everything I ever wanted as a little girl, to have my sissy back.”

Alice moved from the couch beside Edward to sitting next to Cynthia. Reaching out, she grabbed the woman’s hand and held it gently. “I’m here now.” She smiled, wishing she could ease some of her decades-long sorrow. “And I’m going to have a thousand questions,” she warned, good-naturedly.

Cynthia laughed at that. “That’s good, because you’re going to hear too much from me this week, probably.” She smiled again but winced, her face contorting into a grimace.

“Headache?” Edward asked, acting like he didn’t already know.

Cynthia shook her head but then sighed. “Nothing too bad. I get them when I cry,” she laughed again, “it’s embarrassing but hey! It’s life.” Even though she attempted to laugh it off, Alice could tell it was really bothering her.

“Today was a lot,” she squeezed the woman’s hand gently. “I’m happy to know that you’re real and not a random person.”

Cynthia smiled, finding the idea humorous. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“Why don’t you take the rest of the night to rest and recuperate and we can pick up again tomorrow?” Alice glanced toward Edward before looking back toward her sister. “Just you and me.”

“That sounds good, actually,” Cynthia nodded, gripping Alice’s hand back tightly. “It’ll give me enough time to dig up all the old photo albums and things. We can go through some of it.”

“Or all of it,” Alice spoke, shrugging. She didn’t want to seem overly eager, but she would absolutely take any chance she could at collecting all of the information she was able to. “Remember, I don’t know a thing about myself. Well, my human self.”

Cynthia beamed at that. Alice was taken aback by the way her grin was so familiar. _We have the same smile_ , she realized in awe.

Despite the rocky start, Alice as suddenly overcome with excitement.

They parted not long after that. Alice embraced Cynthia, only more willing and more warmly this time, with far fewer tears. Edward thanked Cynthia for her hospitality, and they set a time—ten o’clock tomorrow morning—to meet back up and continue where they’d left off.

It wasn’t until they were already in the car, driving back toward the Containment Center, when Alice spoke up.

“I have a sister.”

Edward hummed, “That you definitely do.”

Alice stared at him for a long moment after that. “There’s something you’re not telling me.”

He sighed. “I mean, she’s legitimate. That much is certain. And she doesn’t know what happened to you, either. She was serious about that.”

Alice nodded. “She was only what? Eight? Nine when I was committed? I wouldn’t expect her to know.”

“There’s something else…”

Alice watched him pour over how to word the information, and sighed.

“She wants my father to meet me,” truthfully, she’d already seen it. “I’m guessing you don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Judging from her thoughts—and from the fact that he’s in his eighties and senile—I doubt it’s wise.”

Alice huffed at that. No matter what had happened to force them to lock her away, she wanted to meet her family. All of them. “He’s an old man, what’s he going to do?”

“Nothing physically, but,” he trailed off, and Alice stared out through the windshield. “Just maybe hold off on that for now.”

Truthfully, there was very little Edward could say now to change her mind. She wanted to hang out with her sister and learn about her father and find out more about her mother.

Alice had found herself with acute disappointment a few months back during one of her ‘research attempts’. The information she’d found on her father had been minimal: Edgar John Brandon had owned a small chain of jewelry stores that were popular back in the eighties and nineties, but he’d shut down the business by the turn of the century. The information she’d found on her mother had been even less: the only thing she could find out about Lillian Brandon is that she was long dead.

A car accident had claimed her the summer before Alice had been committed.

Not a day went by that Alice didn’t wonder whether that had triggered whatever insanity that had forced her father to send her away to a mental hospital up in Maryland.

“She isn’t a big fan of us.” Edward spoke up again after a small period of silence. “Vampires, I mean.”

Alice shifted in her seat at that. “I caught onto the fact that she didn’t really know how to talk to us.” She frowned. “It definitely didn’t need to be as awkward as it was.”

“If we had knocked on that door without her expecting us, or without her knowing who we are, she would’ve gotten her husband’s gun.”

She was put out by that. “I wonder where he is…” Cynthia hadn’t mentioned him once.

Edward hummed, “He didn’t cross her mind. There was only one car in the two-car garage. So,” he half-shrugged, “at work, maybe?”

“I didn’t notice that. I’ll ask tomorrow.”

“Just be careful,” Edward advised. “I know she’s your sister but you’re still a public figure. If things went sour between you two, any information that you give her could be used against you.” Alice was suddenly incensed. “ _Alice_ ,” Edward’s voice was loud. “I’m not saying that she’ll do anything like that. But you need to be careful.”

“She’s my _family_ ,” she cried, aghast with the very idea. “It’s absolutely unfair for you to tell me I don’t deserve to bond with her or have a relationship with her or—”

“I’m not saying any of that—”

“Then stop!” Now, she really felt like crying. “I know you’re just looking out for me, and I appreciate that usually. But this is different. This is my sister, my little sister! My link to my old life! This is all I’ve ever wanted Edward.”

“I know.”

“Then please, just save the lecture for some other day. Or some other topic. Please don’t lecture me for wanting to indulge in something I’ve never had the luxury of having.”

“I want you to be careful.” He spoke again, staring directly out the windshield, refusing to face her. “That is all.”

“Thank you. I will be.”

And that was that.

They were silent for the remainder of the drive back to the Center. Alice would be using one of their empty offices as her private space for the next several days—or, for however long she decided to stay—while she visited with her sister. She’d do some tasks here and there, and she’d already talked to both Carlisle and Rosalie about getting some busy work sent her way for her to complete while she was down there.

For the first time in several months, Alice found herself feeling good about hanging around a Center and contributing to the hard work of her coworkers. Something told her she had the excitement of meeting her sister to thank for that. And truthfully, the atmosphere across the campus definitely helped, too.

These people had bounced back relatively quickly and were far kinder to her than any other group of people had been.

Despite the fact that she was still upset with him, Alice hugged Edward tightly before he departed, thanking him with a shaky voice. He had smiled thinly, and then she was alone.

It felt strange to be alone again, but it wasn’t an unwelcome feeling.

Feeling refreshed, Alice reached into her bag and skipped over her laptop, instead pulling out her sketchpad. She’d be sending Josie countless sketches later tonight.

Only instead of drawing faceless, random bodies wearing her conceptual outfits, she gave the figure a face. With soft cheeks, dark eyes, and smile lines.

As she drew, she mused quietly. She’d have to send Josie a proper photo of her and her sister at some point tomorrow.

She was sure she’d hear an earful if she didn’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise!
> 
> I figured you all needed—well, deserved—one final chapter this year. 2020 has been rough for most and devastating for some. Again, the only reason I started posting this story this year was to provide some of you with a distraction adequate enough to let your brain take a break. It's hard for people to process trauma after trauma after trauma, and that's what this year really did to a lot of us: exposed us to astronomical levels of hurt and suffering and pain.
> 
> So here you go. One final update for this year. Don't get used to surprise, sporadic updates. They aren't going to happen usually. Although once I finish this story I'll begin updating twice a month instead of just once.
> 
> As for me, I'm ending the year with COVID, isolated off in the desert, with a week off of work with nothing to do but sleep, eat, and write fic. Fingers crossed I can finish this fic over this week, but if not, then at least I tried. Love you guys, and happy 2021.


	6. Chapter 6

“ _She’s trying to kill me._ ”

Alice laughed happily, leaning back in the chair as she pulled her feet up on the desk. “And hello to you, too. What happened to your ‘polite’ greetings?”

“ _Sorry. I’ve forgotten absolutely everything that isn’t Daisy and her nephew’s possible affair. Including manners and niceties_.”

“Ooh, an affair? Very juicy.”

“ _Has Josie always been this big of a gossip?_ ”

“There was nothing else to do down in Biloxi,” Alice joked, closing her eyes and smiling to herself. If she focused on the sound of Jasper’s voice hard enough, she could pretend that she were with him, instead of nearly six states away. “Her soaps were only on during the day. She had to find a way to create more drama to keep her entertained through the nights.”

“ _Three hours, Alice. I had to sit in that restaurant for three hours while those two talked at length about absolutely nothing._ ”

Alice whistled. “That is a long time. How many times did they try to get your input?”

“ _What do you mean ‘how many times’? It was constant._ ”

“I think she’s just messing with you,” Alice laughed. “She knows you can’t stand it when she gets gossipy. And _you_ know that she knows that you hate it. So of course she’s going to bug you about it.”

Jasper made a noise indicating he agreed with that sentiment. “ _I think she’s punishing me for all the marriage comments._ ”

“Oh, one hundred percent.”

“ _I didn’t even say anything bad_.”

“Pointing out to an eighty year old woman that _she’s_ never been married, either? Admit it. It was a bad call.” Alice paused for a moment, deciding to word her next sentence carefully. “I have to tell you that I learned what weddings look like today.”

There was silence on the other end of the line for a few seconds. “ _Okay, help me understand. You know what a wedding is. I know that for a fact._ ”

“I mean, duh. But apparently what I’ve been envisioning for all these years are awful, miserable soap opera weddings. Which is not the way things go, as far as I’m learning now. I thought that it was a regular occurrence for them to be interrupted. Or for someone to get in a fight or take the opportunity to make a confession or, I don’t know…” she trailed off. Really, she could go on for several minutes about the types of scenarios she’d watched along with Josie.

Now that she really thought, she didn’t think she’d ever seen any of those shows portray a calm, happy wedding ceremony.

And after she’d finished drawing some sketches of Cynthia she’d finally reached for her laptop and opened up YouTube. Wedding videos _galore_ …

Jasper laughed then, a loud, genuine laugh. “ _I should’ve known_.” The words were spoken out loud, but she had a feeling he was talking to himself. “ _How did you figure that out?_ ”

“Edward nearly crashed the car laughing when he saw what my impressions of weddings are apparently. And then he proceeded to try to tempt me into wanting one—I think he and Josie are conspiring if I’m being completely honest.”

“ _Well, do you?_ ”

Alice opened her eyes. “Do I what?”

“ _Want one. A wedding, I mean._ ”

The question caught her so off guard that she didn’t realize she hadn’t replied until Jasper spoke up again. “ _I take it that’s a no?_ ”

She pulled her feet off of the desk and sat up straighter. “I’m just thinking! I wasn’t expecting that.”

“ _What were you thinking?_ ”

“About how you said weddings were a waste of money. And how they were trivial. And how marriage is just a piece of paper, and when you said—”

“ _I get it, I get it_.” He cut her off. Then, he huffed, “ _I still mean it, but,_ ” she could hear him shift the phone from one hand to the other, “ _if you wanted one I’d tolerate it_.”

That was certainly a development. “Jazz, do _you_ want one?”

“ _I’m asking you here_ ,” he deflected.

“I don’t know!” She confessed, feeling very weird, and slightly embarrassed now. “Maybe? They do look like fun.” Her voice was quiet, almost a squeak as she confessed her new discovery. “I do admit that Josie was right in saying designing one would be a _dream_.”

“ _So, you’d want to get married?_ ”

“Yeah, but Jazz, it doesn’t matter,” she adjusted herself so she was sitting on her feet. “I’m not going to make you do something you hate just because I think it might be fun. And besides. People—humans, especially—take things like marriage very seriously. Imagine if I let it slip that I only wanted to get married because ‘weddings look like fun.’ They’d lose it.”

“ _You’re smart enough not to say something like that to the press. Give yourself some credit here._ ”

“Do you want to get married? You’re the one pushing the topic suddenly.”

“ _I want to make you happy,_ ” he said simply. “ _If a wedding would make you happy, then fine._ ”

Alice smiled at that, holding the phone firmly and wishing once more that she were actually with him. “Let’s talk about this more when I get home. We can sort out some specifics and see if we could make it work.”

Jasper snorted. “ _Whatever you want._ ” There was a smile in his voice. Alice could tell he meant it. “ _How did today go?_ ”

“Good, I think. No, who am I kidding—it went very, very well.”

“ _Tell me all about it._ ”

“Edward and I were only there for barely twenty minutes. I told her I don’t remember my human life. She cried a little bit. I almost cried. It was,” inhaling deeply she let out a slow, shuddering breath, “it was a lot.”

“ _Are you okay?_ ”

“I’m excited. I’m going back in the morning and she’s going to show me some old pictures. I told her I wanted her to show me everything. She seemed just as eager and excited as me, so I’m thinking tomorrow I’m going to learn a lot.”

“ _I’m happy you’re there. I couldn’t keep my promise but I’m glad you found your family._ ”

“Jazz…” Alice frowned. “Don’t.”

She could almost visualize his shrug. “ _I’m happy you’re still getting what you deserve_.”

“I wish you wouldn’t do that.”

“ _What?_ ”

“Undercut yourself. You made a promise that you were going to keep. I know that. You can’t help that something prevented that.” Alice spoke up again, cutting him off before her could be any more self-deprecating. “Don’t you start about ’breaking promises’. Here’s a promise: I’m going to come home and kiss you senseless and then when you get off probation we’re going to go somewhere very nice and very far away and,” she paused, “and it will be perfect.”

“ _Alice_ ,” he laughed.

“No. Be nice to yourself or I’m going to text Josie and tell her you need cheering up.”

“ _That’s the opposite of what I want_.”

“Exactly. I’m threatening you. So quit it.” There was a lull in conversation as his laughter died down. Alice relished in the sound of it. “That’s better.”

“ _I told her what happened. During the war_.”

Alice sat up abruptly. “You did?” She hadn’t seen that at all. In fact, she hadn’t even known about their three hour stint at Josie’s favorite diner until he’d filled her in on his day. She’d been so caught up with watching Cynthia’s future and everything tied to that situation that she’d neglected everyone else. “Why?”

Alice never talked about the war with her adoptive mother, and Josie had never asked before. She figured it was better that way; she couldn’t protect her mother from the pain and suffering caused by the war itself, but Alice _could_ prevent her from worrying any further about her.

It was bad enough that Josie knew the story that had been crafted. To know the truth would mean that she would know the full extent of what Jasper had been through. And she’d know all the ways in which he’d hurt people.

Alice included.

“ _I wasn’t planning on it,_ ” he spoke quietly. “ _You know how observant she is. First we were talking about all the traveling we did last spring and summer, and then she was interrogating me on why I didn’t ‘date you properly’ before the war started, and then the next thing you know,_ ” he sighs, “ _she’s demanding to know the truth about what I did, and about why we were in Winnipeg for so long_.”

“What did she say?” Alice was almost afraid to find out. She had never outright lied to her mother about anything going on, but leaving out details and key points had always felt damning to her.

“ _She took it all in stride,_ ” he sounded even more surprised than she felt. “ _I mean, scarily well_.”

“So she knows what exactly?”

“ _Nothing too specific, trust me. But she knows the real reason I went with Maria. She knows the general idea of how Maria operated; with her underlings and their talents and how she managed to get me to do all of the things I did._ ” Alice had to refrain from letting the mention of Maria’s name upset her. “ _She knows that it was never a willing mission. That nothing that happened was planned. That I didn’t sign up to kill people; again. She knows I hurt people. That I hurt you. And she’s aware of the fact that not everything is as it seems._ ”

“And she took all of that well?”

“ _Frighteningly so. But she’s worried about us_.”

“She always is,” Alice sighed, trying to decide whether or not this turn of events was something she liked. She had always assumed that Josie would never know the nitty gritty. And, according to Jasper, she didn’t; _technically_. Only the general events. The vague details.

But Alice also assumed that if they were to tell Josie about what had happened, they would have done it together. Especially knowing how often Jasper put the blame and responsibility on his own shoulders.

Alice would have to check in with her when she got home. Find out the full scope of what Josie knew, and make sure that her mother was aware of the fact that Jasper had only ever done everything he had done because of the fact that he loved her.

It was a beautiful thing, but it sometimes left her with guilt sitting heavy in her chest.

“ _Talk to me,_ ” Jasper pleaded, after another long silence. “ _Tell me that you’re thinking._ ”

“And you’re sure she didn’t freak out over anything? And that you made the right call?”

“ _Emmett already gave me a heads up a couple weeks ago. He told me she’d been grilling him for details for a while now, and that it was only a matter of time before she cornered me. I’ve been anticipating it_.”

“You never mentioned that,” she frowned, slowly sinking back into the chair she’d been comfortably been lounging in since the beginning of their conversation.

“ _We didn’t get very much time to catch up this weekend._ ”

He was right, of course. And Alice felt another pang of guilt. She’d been so excited to spend time with him, and then when she’d arrived home to a letter of her long-lost sister, her focus had redirected itself onto all things Cynthia.

“I’m sorry.”

“ _You have nothing to be sorry for,_ ” she could hear his smile. “ _I know you’re stressing out right now. I can nearly feel it through the phone. Please, try and relax. Josie is okay. I’m okay. I’m_ happy _you’re there with your sister. When I get home from resetting tomorrow I expect to turn my phone back on to have forty pictures of you and your family from when you were younger._ ”

“Forty?” Alice scoffed. “That’s if there’s only forty photos. I’m sending you a copy of everything I see.”

“ _And in a few months, we can visit together, and your sister can show me herself._ ”

There was no vision confirming such a trip, but Alice could almost picture it now. She even found herself daydreaming about what it would be like to throw Josie in the mix, too. All of her family, all in one place.

It felt too good to be true.

“I’m just hoping I can find out some answers tomorrow.”

“ _But if you can’t, just enjoy the time you spend with her, okay?_ ”

Alice nodded, inhaling deeply. It was a reasonable, simple request. But Alice was itching for answers. Of _course_ Jasper knew that and was warning her about managing her expectations. “Yeah. Okay, I will.”

“ _Good_ ,” he paused, and Alice heard what sounded like someone speaking. Carlisle, most likely. “ _Alright, I have to go now. I’ll call you when I get home tomorrow._ ”

“Promise?” She asked in a small voice. Jasper didn’t usually call her; it was typically the other way around.

“ _I’ll call you the second I get in the car. I promise. I’ll talk to you tomorrow._ ”

“I love you.”

“ _I love you, too._ ”

And then she was alone again.

It was almost embarrassing how long she held the phone up to her ear after that. She hadn’t been there a full day yet and was already so homesick it was ridiculous. Eventually she lowered the device and found herself opening Instagram.

She still didn’t understand the true purpose of the social media website, but she knew it was a fantastic way to kill time. She scrolled for a few hours. Liking posts, replying to nice comments, and deleting mean ones (she’d learned her lesson in replying to those). If there was one thing Rosalie had taught her about using it was that the block button was your best friend.

She didn’t do it _too_ often; only when she received a threat or something explicit. But she did it often enough.

When she’d asked Jasper why on Earth random men—human and vampire alike—thought she would ever want to see a photo of their penis, he’d nearly deleted the app off of her phone himself, grumbling about ‘creeps’ and ‘fucking perverts’ while he tried to explain that no, that indeed wasn’t normal, and her repulsed reaction was fully appropriate.

After scrolling through her direct messages, she was satisfied to only have to block ninety people that day.

Sunrise was there quicker than she anticipated. She wrapped up a couple of sketches, responded to a few emails, and sent a few text messages. By the time she was ready to leave, she still had an hour to kill. But instead of spending anymore time in the office, she figured she could better use her time elsewhere.

Alice found herself nervously maneuvering the giant SUV out of the parking lot and toward Northport. The only cars she’d ever felt comfortable driving were smaller ones. Operating anything larger than a full-sized sedan left her nervous. She knew she wouldn’t hit anything, but still, the size of the vehicle wasn’t preferable.

She’d contemplated getting her own rental but decided against it quickly. The second she walked into a rental car place the information that she was in town would be all over the place.

Center-owned cars were far nicer, and the tinted windows offered her privacy she couldn’t afford to give up.

The media was already speculating that there was potential trouble at Tuscaloosa’s Center, but Alice figured they could guess all they wanted to. As long as they were under the impression that Alice was there for business, and that she would be confined to the center, she felt confident to drive around freely.

She drove for almost the full hour even though though it was only a fifteen minute drive from the Center to Cynthia’s house.

Not able to help herself, Alice pulled into the driveway a few minutes early. Cynthia emerged onto her porch less than a minute later, and when Alice exited the car and embraced her sister for the third time, it finally felt right.

“I’m finally prepared for you today,” Cynthia joked as she led Alice toward the kitchen. In the center of the kitchen table was a stack of photo albums nearly a foot high. “This isn’t all of them. But they’re all the ones in the house that I could find or dig out of storage.”

“You mean there’s more?!” Alice was elated, flickering toward the table so abruptly that Cynthia jumped, gasping. “Oh,” Alice blinked over at where she’d left her sister standing across the room. “Sorry.”

Alice knew she had to humanize herself while with her sister. It was obvious, even without Edward confirming it, that the woman had never been properly exposed to vampires. She could only imagine how jarring it was to experience, firsthand.

She also found it so, so strange that any human nowadays would be as caught off guard by simple vampire traits as she was. But then she recalled all of the humans in her old neighborhood in Biloxi that had constantly given her a wide berth.

Fighting back a grimace at the memory—and the subsequent reminder of people’s fear and hatred of vampires—Alice sat herself down in the chair at human speed, waiting anxiously for her sister to join her.

“I’m going to put a pot of coffee on,” she turned on her heel and strode across the room. “I organized them so that the oldest ones are on the top. If you want to start chronologically, go right on ahead.”

Alice moved extra slowly, nerves outweighing excitement as she delicately picked up the album on the top. It was a deep teal color and small; likely only fitting one or two photos per page on the inside.

The cover was old and worn, but written in delicate gold lettering across the from of it was her name; Mary-Alice.

Alice stared at it for several minutes, no sense of time passing until Cynthia sat beside her.

“It’s okay,” the woman smiled, reaching forward and slowly opening the album that Alice was still holding so careful in her hands. “Go ahead.”

The first photo sent her into a fit of laughter.

It was her, as a baby. Barely a year old and sitting up in the grass. There was a stunned expression across her little round face, the black and white photo showcasing how light her eyes were, even with the lack of color.

“That’s me?” And the emotion that came over her nearly sent her into tears. “I…”

“That’s you. Summer of 53’. Mama was very much ahead of the times. Or at least as far as I know. I have plenty of friends who don’t have albums like these.”

Two photographs on the next page left her stunned.

“That’s you on the first snow that year,” Cynthia pointed out expertly, knowing the story behind every picture. “And that’s you with Mama and Dad.”

Alice looked significantly bigger in this picture, a toddler by the time her first proper family photograph was taken. She sat in the lap of a man who didn’t smile, but who stared. At whoever was taking the photo, if she had to guess. At his side, a woman grinned, her eyes turned toward him, perhaps the only person who knew what was causing his supposed sour mood.

Alice stared at the woman’s profile, committing every detail to memory instantly. Her soft, round face, her dark, short-cut hair.

“That’s her,” Alice whispered, lifting a shaking hand to rest against the picture. “That’s _them_.”

“You alright?” She hesitated at first but decided quickly, and when Cynthia rested her hand on Alice’s back she had to wrestle back a sob.

Instead she swallowed her emotions and nodded. “I’m happy,” she whispered, still nodding. “I’m so very, very happy.” Chancing a look, she found Cynthia’s eyes full of tears.

“Me too,” she confessed, her lip trembling.

Alice laughed then. “We’re only three pictures in and we’re already crying.”

“You mean I’m crying,” she laughed then, wiping tears from the edge of her eyes with a napkin. “That’s okay. I figured I might do a bit of that today.”

“Won’t you get a headache?”

“I preemptively took some Aleve. I think we should be okay.”

Flickering through a few visions, Alice took a chance and extended her hand, reaching toward her sister. There was a mental back-and-forth for all of two seconds (Alice had the visions to prove it) before Cynthia reached out, grabbing Alice’s hand within her own.

If she was bothered by the difference in temperature between the two, she didn’t let on, and Alice found herself grateful by the lack of a comment.

The entire morning unfolded perfectly. They made their way through every album on the table. At one point Alice pulled her phone out and spent time taking the best picture she could of every photograph there.

Cynthia laughed at the action even when Alice insisted on taking them. “My oldest son, Zachary, scanned all of these for me a few years back. I can email you the high-quality ones. Or, well, he can. It would take me days to figure it out. Or to find them on the computer probably.”

“Oh, that would be great. Thank you.” Snapping a few more photos, she pocketed her phone. “How old is he?”

“Thirty-seven,” Cynthia stood up and walked across the kitchen. Beside the refrigerator was a few shelves. Pulling her own photo album out of the cubby, she flipped it open as she returned to the table. “I was only good at taking pictures when they were all little.” She opened it to a picture of three children; two boys exponentially older than the little girl.

“Zach’s high school graduation. Sammy was almost fourteen here, and Cassie was barely six months old.” She smiled down at the photo before sliding the album toward Alice. “This one isn’t organized like Mama’s albums are, but it has my babies.”

“Sammy looks a lot like you,” Alice commented, smiling as she flipped through the pictures. The boy had the same brown hair as Cynthia, and the same hazel eyes. Zachary’s hair was the same shade, too, his eyes a dark brown. But little Cassie had the same jet-black hair that Alice did.

Seeing the similarities between herself and these children she’d never seen before planted an unknown emotion in her chest. “They’re beautiful,” she sighed, feeling so full of love for these people she’d never met; it was overwhelming.

“Thank you.”As Alice flipped through the photos, Cynthia pointed to a tall man in a baseball cap, watching something in the distance. “That’s my husband, Tim.”

“How’d you two meet?”Alice grinned, resting her chin in her hands as she awaited her sister’s reply.

“We we neighbors for years actually,” she smiled in reply, reaching out and flipping to another page. This one displayed a family photo of all of them. “Of course I didn’t even speak to him until high school. After graduation, we both commuted to UA. He offered to give me rides and not long after that we were dating.” Cynthia flipped a few pages, landing on a photo of herself, holding a baby in her arms. “I had Zach just before my nineteenth birthday.”

It was bizarre to see. Especially when Alice couldn’t help but compare herself to Cynthia in every tiny way.

When Cynthia was nineteen she’d attended college, fallen in love, _and_ had a child.

By the time Alice was nineteen she’d been committed to a mental hospital.

No matter how happy she was to see that her sister had lived a normal, happy life, there was an ache in the back of her chest. She was almost afraid to hear about what Cynthia had thought of her, or what memories her sister may have of her…

“I withdrew from school, of course, and by the time Sammy was born Tim had graduated and accepted a job with the company he works for now.”

“Where is he, by the way?” Alice asked, glancing toward their future and not seeing the man’s presence at all.

She knew there was no big secret and that his presence as someone who lived in the house wasn’t questionable; after all, pieces of Cynthia’s husband were still around. A pair of shiny work shoes in the foyer. A couple of old baseball hats on the coat rack (that smelled like they needed a good washing). Alice had also caught sight of a laundry basket pushed to the side at the top of the stairs; men’s ties hanging out of it.

“He’s in New Jersey for the next week or so. He travels a lot for work so I’m always holding down the fort down here. I’m usually out and around town but,” she smiled at her, “this is definitely better than errands and lunch dates.”

Alice smiled back, still so happy at the way this week had turned out.

And to think one week ago she was attempting to navigate harsh political waters and getting scolded by her co-Protectors.

This felt like the vacation that Carlisle had joked she didn’t need.

Cynthia told her more about her family than. That Zach had studied business and also worked for the company Tim worked for. That Sammy studied architecture and made a living doing freelance design work. Cassie was finishing up her first year at Stillman, but was still undecided on a major.

“Would you be interested in meeting them?”

Alice’s jaw dropped. “Really? I would love to!”

Cynthia sighed in relief, and then laughed. “Okay, good. Because I went ahead and invited them to dinner tonight. Well, it’ll be a late lunch, because Cassie has a night class on Wednesdays.”

“Oh wow, I can’t wait to meet them!” Alice grinned. This day couldn’t get any better. “I…” she paused, her smile softening. “I have to be honest. I didn’t know what to expect when I received your letter. I knew that I had a dad, and that I’d had a mom who has passed away, but that was it.” She shrugged. “I’ve never been good at research, so I had know idea I had a sister, or nephews and a niece.”

“Not even with all,” Cynthia waved a hand, looking for the right wording, “all those resources you’ve got?”

Alice smiled sheepishly. “I’m not very tech savvy. If google can’t tell me, I won’t know.”

Cynthia chuckled. “I can relate to that.” Then, her expression sobered. “You were looking?”

For a moment she deliberated between the casual, vague truth and the full, uncensored truth. Either answer started with a ‘yes’, but Alice was nervous about sharing anything. Especially with the way the importance of secrecy had been drilled into over the past year.

But this didn’t have anything to do with her job. This only had to do with her. It was her business, which meant she could share it with her sister if she wanted.

Alice nodded. “Started looking casually last spring after I learned my full name.”

Cynthia was taken aback. “Your full name?” But realization was quick to hit her. “That’s why you only go by Alice.”

Alice nodded, her mind drifting toward her old medical bracelet that she had resting in her jewelry box at home. It was funny to think that if _Mary_ had been the only part of her first name that was legible, she’d be going by something entirely different now.

“Carlisle—well, Jasper, mainly—tracked down all of my info after I joined. Not _all_ of it, I guess. But the basics. My date of birth, the date of my ‘death’. So I looked casually with google, but when things started getting bad, I was forced to put it on hold.” Alice was sure she didn’t need to explain the why.

“Death date? How did you find that?” Cynthia was taken aback.

“It was on my death certificate.”

“But I,” and then the vision hit her. Cynthia didn’t know that Alice’s death had ever been officially confirmed. “Wouldn’t they need a body for that?”

Alice frowned. “You’d think…” She let her eyes drift back toward the open photo album in front of her. “There’s a lot that doesn’t make sense,” she mumbled, almost to herself.

Cynthia nodded, her expression just as morose as Alice’s. “I’m just happy to know you’re still around.” She reached forward and grabbed Alice’s hand again. This time with less hesitation.

“Likewise,” Alice exhaled slowly. “Thank you, again. For showing me all of these.”

“You have just as much of a right to them as I do. Probably more, since you’re the oldest and all.” Cynthia paused, thinking for a moment. “Technically, at least.”

“Am I how you remember me?”

“Almost. Your hair was always long when we were younger. I have a vivid memory of you letting me braid your hair once. I was probably five or six; I tangled your hair up so badly Mama had to sit you in the tub and lard your head up to untangle it.”

“Oh no,” Alice laughed, “I hope we didn’t get in trouble for that.”

“You didn’t care one bit, and Mama found it amusing. Dad was not thrilled.”

Alice grinned, holding her sister’s hand and enjoying the memory that she wished she could visualize. “Tell me about them.”

“My memories of you and Mama are pretty fuzzy. I have a lot of good ones, but I was so young when she died, and then you disappeared not long after.” Cynthia swallowed, and Alice could see the hurt still prevalent all these years later. She squeezed her hand gently. “We were a little trio. I remember that much. I was always getting into trouble, and you were always there to watch out for me. And Mama was so lovely. I don’t have a lot of memories, but I do know that they were all really nice ones. But again, I was about seven when she died, so Anna-Marie filled the role of ‘mom’ more for me.”

Alice blinked down at the photo album in front of her, flipping a few pages. She didn’t recognize that name.

“Anna-Maria and Dad got married just before you disappeared,” Cynthia explained. “She wasn’t very maternal, but after Mama died she was all I had until I was about fifteen.” She shrugged.

“Fifteen?”

“She died around then.”

“I’m so sorry,” Alice watched her sister with sad eyes as she released her hand and reached for her coffee mug. “That must’ve been hard.”

“Everyone dies eventually,” she explained easily. But then her expression shifted, “Oh, well. Sorry. For most of us I guess.”

Alice didn’t blame her for fumbling over her words. “Immortal doesn’t mean indestructible.”

“The news loves reminding us of that.”

Alice nodded silently, agreeing. She couldn’t exactly _say_ anything though. Not when the news showcased a lot of the madness that Alice was dealing with on the job. It was becoming increasingly difficult for Alice to figure out who she was outside of her job as a Protector. And while Cynthia quietly sipped her coffee, Alice was left trying to determine whether it was a good time to push the subject on her father.

The woman reached out for one of the larger albums and began flipping through pages, smiling as she did.

“You said there were more?” Alice asked, knowing that the question would bring them to the subject.

“There are more at my—I mean, at Dad’s house.” She flipped through the pages, absentmindedly sipping her coffee. “I’ll have to get them before he does something to them,” she mumbled, more to herself than to Alice.

“Does he live close?”

Cynthia hummed in confirmation. But when she didn’t speak any further, Alice grew concerned. In her mind, she sorted through different things to say, then decided upon a different course.

“What happened to Anna-Marie, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Hiking accident,” Cynthia grimaced, placing her coffee down and folding her arms over her chest. “It was awful. Her and Dad went on a weekend getaway up north to Lookout. She fell off an incline and plummeted one hundred feet to her death.”

Alice gasped softly, feeling like a jackass for even asking in the first place. “Cynthia, I’m so sorry.”

“It was a freak accident. She wasn’t very outdoorsy. The whole trip changed Dad. I think he felt guilty; as if it were his fault. I know that if he hadn’t pushed the vacation, they never would’ve gone, and she’d still be around.”

Alice stared at her sister as she studied the photographs on the table in silence. Her little sister had been through so much by such a young age. First their mother’s death, then Alice’s disappearance, and then years later, her step-mother’s death.

She was so grateful to Cynthia’s family; to her husband and to everything good that had happened after all of that loss. Her sister deserved good things. And knowing that she’d eventually got them, made her feel a little bit lighter.

“Here,” Cynthia pushed one of the albums that they hadn’t opened yet toward Alice and stood up from the table, “if you don’t mind, I’m going to get started on dinner. If you see someone new, just describe them and I’ll try and see if I can’t tell you who they are from memory.”

Alice nodded, enjoying a brief tinge of amusement at Cynthia’s idea of a game and went back to silently flipping through pages and pages of pictures.

A part of her waited with bated breath as she studied each and every face in every single photo. Maybe one of them would trigger a memory, or would have an air of familiarity to them. Alice hoped desperately that there would be a twinge of _something_ in one of their faces. But as she discovered new people in the photos, describing them to her sister as she flitted around the kitchen, filling pans and pots and turning dials and buttons on the stovetop and oven, she eventually realized that there was going to be no miracle there.

Nothing was going to magically cause a memory to materialize in her head. She didn’t realize how potent her disappointment was until Cynthia called her over, asking her if she wanted to help.

And as someone who had never cooked—not even once for Josie—and who wanted a different, proper distraction from the sadness blooming within her chest, Alice jumped on the opportunity.

Nearly three hours later, the two sisters were in absolute hysterics laughing. Cynthia was near-tears, leaning back against her kitchen island while Alice stood there, gravy spilled down the front of her, wishing she hadn’t worn a white shirt that day.

When the timer for the oven had gone off, indicating that the pot-roast was finished cooking, Alice had excitedly opened the over and grabbed the pan.

Which had caused Cynthia to scream.

Which had caused Alice to jump.

Which had caused gravy and potatoes to go flying.

Then, the sisters had stared at each other—Cynthia in horror and Alice in confusion—before Alice blurted out the first thing that came to her mind. “It doesn’t hurt?”

And when Cynthia started laughing, hand on her head and another over her heart, Alice couldn’t tell if it was because of the way she’d phrased the words or because she looked positively ridiculous in that moment.

And when Alice heard a car driving down the street pull into the driveway, her head shot toward the front of the house, and her laughter died down.

Cynthia’s expression changed into one of confusion before she realized what Alice was staring at. “They’re here already?”

Alice only nodded, suddenly forgetting that she was holding the dinner for all of these humans. Or, what was left of it.

“Here,” Cynthia reached out for the food with oven mit clad hands. “The powder room is down the hall to the left. I’ll go grab a shirt for you and then run some interference.”

Five minutes later, wearing a borrowed shirt that was definitely too big, Alice emerged from the bathroom, nervous about what she knew she’d see.

Her nerves were entirely misplaced, of course. She had already seen that the dinner would go well. And that Zach couldn’t make it. And that Sammy was very excited to meet her. And that Cassie would convince Cynthia that skipping class was healthy sometimes, and she’d stay until late that night.

But watching her meet her niece and nephew in her mind was far different than actually doing it.

And when Alice stood in the kitchen, staring at two of Cynthia’s children, she felt herself thrown back into the present.

Cynthia was lit so brightly; so much more animated and happier than Alice had seen her yet. _These kids mean the world to her_ , Alice knew it in her bones. _This is her world_.

Talking about the past hadn’t made Cynthia do anything other then shrug and frown and dance around topics. Watching her as she fussed over her two grown children made Alice feel like she was finally seeing her sister. Or at least, the woman she had grown into. Kind, and happy and full of love.

It almost made Alice wish this meeting had taken place the day before.

Of course, in the middle of their introductions her phone had rang. She’d nearly forgotten about Jasper’s promise to call her when he got out of resetting that day. She’d excused herself for a moment, answering quickly and then apologized to him profusely when she explained that she was meeting Cynthia’s children and was going to trade his conversation for their company.

Jasper had laughed in reply before telling her to enjoy herself. And after thanking him for keeping his promise, andexchanging quiet ‘I love you’s, she was back in the kitchen, a little embarrassed at the interruption, but excited to meet more of her family.

The rest of the day passed by so quickly that the only explanation for it was the age old saying, ‘time flies when you’re having fun.’

Sammy was extremely friendly and engaging, answering all of Alice’s questions and even asking her some as well. He was the only person to bring up Jasper, politely asking how he was, and even embarrassing her over asking whether they had any concrete plans to get married.

She’d answered vaguely enough—remarking how that was all anyone, press or not, wanted to know nowadays—but her non-answer hadn’t deterred him in the slightest, and Sammy had spent a solid ten minutes telling her about a venue upstate that was ‘absolutely worth checking out’.

Alice agreed to look into it, mentally making a note to tell Jasper that they had better hurry up and just get married already. If it would please all these people, family or otherwise, then maybe it would give the press something better to talk about other than their handlings of the war’s aftermath.

And no matter how much she loved Jasper, the marriage comments were beginning to get a little bit grating on her nerves.

Cassie had chimed in a few times, certainly the quieter of the two children present, but just as excited as her brother. She’d commented on Alice’s social media presence, asking if it was really her posting to the accounts or whether she had some sort of publicist or team running them.

Alice had laughed at that, not even knowing that was a thing. That had spurned a conversation about ‘influencer and celebrity culture’ that had Alice sitting beside Cassie at the table, watching in awe as her niece pulled up articles and explained the business side of social media.

At one point Alice compared Cassie to Rosalie, and she swore she’d never seen a human so unwilling to accept a comparison. “Just take the compliment,” Sammy had laughed after Cassie had taken a full minute to explain how no one was as smart or gorgeous as Rosalie.

Alice swore the girl was going to have a heart attack when she promised to get her a ‘follow back’ from Rosalie’s accounts.

All too quickly, Cynthia was yawning and Alice took a look at the time, realizing that it was close to eleven o’clock. She’d definitely overstayed her welcome.

“I think I should get going,” she chimed in during their next lull in conversation.

“It _is_ getting late,” Sammy remarked, checking his watch and pressing a few things on the screen. “Alright Cass, let’s let Mom get to sleep.”

Cynthia stood up from he couch and outstretched her arms toward her second son. “I’m happy you two could make it,” she embraced the boy, kissing his cheek as he bent down to hug her back.

“How long are you going to be here?” Cassie asked Alice, turning to frown at her brother as he stepped up to her, nudging her foot with his own.

Alice shrugged. “A few days, maybe? I don’t have a flight booked home yet.”

“So you’ll be here tomorrow?”

“Aren’t you helping your friend Liz move into her apartment?” Sammy asked, shrugging a coat onto his shoulders as he dug around his pocket for his keys.

“Shit, you’re right.”

“Language,” Cynthia scolded as Cassie stood up and walked into her mother’s outstretched arms. “If you can’t come tomorrow, you can just come on Friday. Your father should be home by then.”

Alice perked up at that. She was excited to meet Cynthia’s husband.

Both her niece and nephew gave her tight hugs before departing, and Alice promised to see them again before flying back home to Pennsylvania. It was as Sammy’s car was pulling out of the driveway, departing to drive back to town, where Cynthia spoke again.

“We watched the announcement together, Sammy, Cassie and I.” Alice turned toward her sister as she spoke. They both stood on the porch, and the night air was warm, and thick with humidity. The bugs outside were deafening, and Alice found the strange sound comforting. Paired with the light lavender scent coming off of the shirt she was wearing—the scent of the laundry detergent, most likely—Alice realized she was going to be relating these things to her family from now on. Cicadas and lavender.

Despite not having the memories from before, it didn’t mean she couldn’t start forming them now. New ones; ones that had meaning.

Cynthia continued talking. “When they showed you on the television that night, before they’d even spoken your name I knew. I just knew. Even with the golden eyes, and the short hair, and the refined features. I knew it was you.” She then nodded her head toward where the car had driven off. “Cassie. She’s your spitting image.”

It was true. When Alice had laid her eyes upon her niece, she couldn’t fight the feeling that she was staring into a mirror. A strange, odd mirror, giving her more proper insight as to what Alice had looked like around the time of her change.

Cassie was a little bit taller, of course. Not by much, but by a couple of inches. Her hair was longer, too, nearly halfway down her back, but just as pin-straight as Alice’s. She was thin, but a healthy thin. Nowhere near as sickly-skinny as Alice. But they were built so similarly that it was clear to see her niece had taken after Alice more than she had her mother.

“I wonder what happened to my hair,” Alice mused. And it was the only thing she could think to say. Cynthia didn’t reply, and Alice didn’t expect her to. They stood on the porch for a few more minutes before Alice embraced her, departing with a promise to see her the following day.

With the flickers she got then, she knew that they’d be going on a little bit of an adventure.

Whether that was a good thing, or not, her visions couldn’t quite show.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We'll get to the real meat of the plot eventually. Not that this is unimportant stuff, but still. I'm used to writing action and adventure. I'm itching to share the craziness with you guys. But still. I need to be patient, and that means so do you guys. Sorry. 
> 
> Anyways, happy Aquarius season! I'm rested up, mostly-recovered from COVID, and back at work already. As I get back into the swing of things I'm working on establishing more of a writing schedule, that way I can finally finish this story, my other Twilight WIP, and then start working on my other WIPs, too. Lots of stories and other things coming out this year that I'm very excited for.
> 
> In related news, I have recently written a song that was originally intended for a Twilight charity zine, created to help raise funds for the Quileute tribe's Move to Higher Ground initiative. If you have the time to do so, I would love it if anyone reading this could look up the project at MTHG (dot) com. This life-and-culture-saving initiative is so important to the indigenous Quileute people, and they haven't received a penny from Stephenie Meyer or Summit Entertainment toward it.
> 
> The song I wrote is a lullaby written about Alice Cullen, and for anyone willing to donate even a dollar toward the cause will receive a link to stream and download the song. All you have to do is DM me on Instagram (shutupmaybe) or Tumblr (flowerslut/hotmail) proof of your donation and the song is yours. You can check it out now on my Tumblr, but with just a dollar toward the cause, a download is all yours.
> 
> Thanks again for your love and support. I'll see you in Pisces season.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you go any further! Currently (as of February 21st 2021) voting is taking place for the TwiFic Fandom Awards, in which this story, and a few others, have been nominated for various awards. I'll keep this quick, but to the point: if y'all can get me to round two in ANY of the categories I'm nominated in, I'll be posting the next chapter of this fic (chapter eight) WILDLY early. And trust me, chapter eight is the chapter with arguably one of the biggest twists in the series. 
> 
> Link to the TwiFic Fandom Awards is in my profile, but you can find it easily through google, too.

Despite the gorgeous weather, Cynthia found parking easily enough along the perimeter of the expansive park. In the near distance Alice took note of a playground filled with children, their parents milling about as their young kids tired themselves out.

She smiled at the sight but found herself thankful that she’d taken adequate precaution today. That morning she’d seen that they’d be going on this walk. She’d worn pants and long sleeves today, finishing off her look with a loose-fitting cardigan and a wide-brimmed hat.

It wouldn’t look out of place unless anyone looked at her too closely. But Alice had seen a notable lack of vampires in her visions for the day, and knew that if she showed up for this walk, glittering and shining in the sun for all to see, people would stare. And then, they’d get to talking.

And in a small town like this, with it’s vampires more densely populated (and isolated) on the fringe of town, Alice knew that drawing attention to herself wouldn’t bode well.

Especially if they figured out who, exactly, she was.

But Cynthia didn’t seem to mind, or perhaps she didn’t care, if anybody saw them together. The idea that her sister wasn’t ashamed of her, made her feel significantly better. Whether people around here were prejudiced or not suddenly mattered little to her; as long as her sister was proud to walk around by her side.

“We didn’t have much of a yard,” Cynthia explained as they walked along one of the paved paths. “No one in the neighborhood did. So we spent nearly all our time running around this place; the other neighborhood kids and I.” She grinned and gestured back toward the playground they’d passed a few minutes prior. “I had my first kiss on those swings back there.”

Alice smiled. “How old were you?”

“I was sixteen and his name was Teddy. Either he was an awful kisser, or I was. Because it was a mess.”

“Oh no,” she suppressed a laugh, bringing up a glittering hand to cover her smile. “What happened to him?”

“The last time I saw him, he fell off the stage at graduation. Knocked his two front teeth out! I heard from my friend Beth recently that they’re still gone.”

Not for the first, and certainly not for the last time, Alice found herself grateful that vampires were far sturdier than that. The story about Cynthia’s old crush falling had Alice thinking back to Anna-Marie. Then, to her father.

Her phone sat heavy in her pocket. Early that morning, Alice had decided to transfer a few files from her laptop to her phone. Things that she wanted to show her sister.

Things she was _scared_ to show her sister.

But she wanted to be honest. Cynthia had provided Alice with more information that she’d ever dreamed about having. And Alice’s disappearance had left a huge hole in the girl’s life. Perhaps if she could give her some closure, they’d both be able to more forward with their relationship.

And maybe Alice would be able to find out what truly had happened to her. Any possible discovery would mean that much more to her if it was something uncovered between her and her biological sister.

“How long after Mama died did Dad marry Anna-Marie?”

“Not long,” Cynthia admitted, as if embarrassed by the information. “People mourn differently, and heal at different rates; I understand that. I’ve had so many people throughout my life ask me if that bothered me. I always say ‘no’, because I didn’t _care_. I mean, I was young. The only things I cared about—the only things I really thought about—was missing Mama and you. If anything I was happy to have Anna-Marie around. She was fun. She kept me busy and kept my mind off of things.”

“I’m glad you had her then,” Alice nodded, staring down at her boots as they walked. “For as long as you did, at least.”

“After she died, things were rough,” Alice could tell that Cynthia was hesitant to admit it. “Dad was so distraught. Thankfully all of us neighborhood kids were pretty close, so I spent a lot of time at everyone’s houses. Lots of sleepovers. Plenty of days away. I gave him space to mourn and he let me stay away from home for days and weeks at a time. It worked out well for the both of us.”

Alice couldn’t explain the instinctual, subconscious relief she felt wash over her with that information. Knowing that her sister had been gifted with a support system during her adolescence filled her with comfort.

“You said you thought I ran away?”

Cynthia inhaled deeply, and sighed upon exhaling. “It’s what I was told at first. And then the story shifted into ‘Mary-Alice disappeared, we don’t know where she went’ and then when I was older, I realized you had died. I don’t remember if I was explicitly told that, but it was like a common fact in the family. Unspoken knowledge, almost.”

“Did you ever talk about it with them? Dad and Anna-Marie.”

“Goodness, no. They weren’t too keen on talking about it. Always changing the subject. It wasn’t until I got older than I realized that they probably just didn’t know what happened. But,” Cynthia glanced at her, “you said you have a death certificate. So, I’m… confused. More confused that I’ve ever been.”

As they passed a bench, Alice turned toward it, beckoning for Cynthia to follow. Sitting down, Alice pulled her phone from her bag. “I think you deserve to know.”

It didn’t take her long to pull up the asylum forms on her phone, but even as she stared at them, it was difficult to hand the phone over. Swallowing, she forced her hands to surrender the device, and sat back, staring at the houses across the street as Cynthia read the paperwork.

“I know you were young,” Alice only spoke up when she was sure Cynthia had both read and fully comprehended everything on the screen in front of her, “but do you remember any of that? Any… behaviors from me?”

Cynthia shook her head, her hand cupped over her mouth as her eyes stared down at the phone, shocked to her core. “No, not at all.” Then, quieter, “I guess that’s why Dad kept it to himself.”

Alice nodded silently. She could imagine that the last person you would want to tell about the commitment of your eldest daughter was the younger, seven-year old one. It was understandable, but the fact that it had remained a family secret left Alice feeling misplaced. As if her removal from the family picture had been a solid, concrete thing. Something that she wasn’t supposed to disturb.

Even now, as she sat hip-to-hip with her flesh and blood sister, on a bench in a park in the neighborhood Cynthia had grown up in, Alice felt as if she were trying to fit somewhere she didn’t belong.

Cynthia reached over and grabbed her hand. And she held it _tight_.

Alice waited for the tears, but Cynthia held them back. “I just.” She handed back the phone and they were quiet for another minute. “I don’t understand. Maybe it’s my childhood memories being fuzzy or,” she waved a hand in the air, not finding the appropriate word, “but things always seemed so normal. You always seemed so normal. Not even normal; I distinctly remember you being really bright and kind. I don’t remember anything like… that…” her voice trailed off, and Alice watched as her eyes lifted and focused on one of the houses across the street.

“What do you remember?”

Cynthia didn’t reply. Instead, she stared ahead of herself. Alice took a moment and then followed her line of sight.

It was there that she saw him. He was older; much, much older. But the features of her father were unmistakable.

He was Josie’s age, at least. Maybe older. Where his hair had been dark brown in old, worn photographs it was now a dark gray, white strands more prominent than brown. Despite it being nearly three in the afternoon, he wore a navy blue robe. Alice could see the light blue patterned sweat pants and black T-shirt underneath. He wasn’t wearing any shoes.

Alice watched as he shuffled down his driveway and toward the pink-bagged newspaper that was lying on the ground. A cigarette hung loosely in his mouth and even as far away as she was, she could hear him groan as he leaned over to pick it up. The cigarette fell out of his mouth and he left it there, turning back around and shuffling back toward the house.

Alice saw a few different visions then. Cynthia wanted desperately for Alice to meet their father; Alice had known that the very first day she’d come to town, and Edward had confirmed it for her. But Alice’s revelation had thrown a wrench in those plans.

She could only hope that she hadn’t also thrown a wrench in their relationship. Or even in Cynthia’s relationship with their father. Sure, she didn’t know what had possessed him to sign her life away to a hospital for the insane, but she was sure it hadn’t been unwarranted.

If Josie had taught her anything, as a stand-in for the first few decades of her second-life: no parent would do that to their child.

Not without a reason.

Alice watched her father retreat inside his house and found herself focusing hard. Visions came easily, but memories did not. No recognition. Nothing.

Cynthia eventually spoke up, her words quiet as she pulled her attention away from her old home. “I don’t know.”

Standing up, Cynthia forced a smile onto her face. “Come on,” she nodded back toward the path, “I want to show you the rest of the neighborhood.”

There was so much more she wanted to say. Questions she wanted to ask. Answers she wanted to get. But Alice knew that her best course of action would be to follow her sister, and pretend that she thought her forced positivity was real.

She would, and could, ask more tomorrow. Now, all there was left to do was salvage the day.

* * *

“I think she’s serious when she says she doesn’t remember what happened. But,” Alice trailed off, “I think there’s more to it.”

She could almost picture Jasper’s frown. “ _Did you tell her that your death date was the same as the admission date?_ ”

“Even the hospital forms were enough to unsettle her. I didn’t want to make it worse.” Alice sighed. “I was really planning on a peaceful day, too.”

“ _You said last night you were also planning on telling her all of that information. I don’t think you can drop all of that on a person and not expect them to be shaken up_.”

“I’m well aware. I just thought maybe she’d be more excited about knowing. After all, she said she didn’t know. And that she’d just wanted to _know_. But now that she knows, it’s like,” Alice paused, “It’s as if she really didn’t want to know, all along.”

“ _Why do you think that is?_ ”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. But maybe you’re right. It’s a lot to take in. I’m sure tomorrow we can talk more and I can get a few more answers. Or if not, we can figure some stuff out together.”

“ _I’ve been looking into the hospital_ ,” Jasper spoke, “ _on my own time, and with my own, rather limited, resources._ ”

Alice straightened up in her desk chair at that, shuffling slightly so that her feet were planted beside her in the seat. “Tell me everything.”

“ _It’s still open, for starters. It goes by a different name, too: Gateview Hospital. Just north of Baltimore. Looks like its under new management but it’s still a privately owned hospital. And it looks like the Baylor family still owns it._ ”

“How did I get to a hospital way up in Maryland?”

“ _If your father knew that you’d be in this hospital for good—and we can assume that since he had death papers written up for you the same day—it’s safe to assume he wanted you far enough away from where you lived so that saying you died would be more believable_.”

Alice nodded. “Can’t quite say your daughter is dead or gone if your neighbor or an acquaintance works at the hospital.” It made sense. But at the same time, it didn’t.

“ _I found your admissions paperwork in the archives of the state’s health department. We got lucky, too. There’s usually a limit to how long they’ll hold onto a patient’s paperwork. Once a doctor retires, or once their practice is ended or, in Dr. Baylor’s case, handed off to the next group of professionals, there’s a period between ten and thirty years that can pass before the documents are destroyed. The hospital became Gateview in ’86, and your documents were due to be wiped back in 2016._ ”

“So either luck was on our side or someone wasn’t doing their job.”

“ _Probably both._ ” Alice could hear him typing on a keyboard. “ _There’s a chance we might be able to get a closer look at this hospital._ ”

Alice froze. “You mean, in person?”

“ _It’s one of the few privately-owned mental health facilities in the state that offers services to vampires_ ,” he commented, and she could still hear him typing. “ _We could go at some point this summer, under some fake pretense, and take a look around._ ”

It was a tempting idea in theory, but the thought of actually going to the hospital she’d spent her last months as a human utterly terrified her.

With a startling realization, Alice knew that she would rather visit Maria’s final resting place than the hospital she’d been locked away in.

It was a place entirely unknown to her. And for the first time since beginning the search for answers, Alice wasn’t sure she wanted to know what had happened to her in those walls. Because while they’d eventually led her to her life of vampirism, there was something that had happened beforehand. Something entirely unknown to her, and everyone around her.

“ _I’ve also been looking into your mother’s death,_ ” Jasper added, almost as an afterthought.

Alice saw what he was so delicately trying to word before he could say it out loud. “You think he killed her. My dad.” Her words tasted sour on her tongue. It was a horrible thing to consider. But she hated how it was a valid theory.

“ _Or at the very least had a hand in her death._ ”

Alice would be lying if she hadn’t let that thought flicker across her mind throughout the day. “Cynthia said that we were close. My mom and I.”

“ _She died six months before you were committed, and you said that he was already married to your step-mother by then._ ”

Cynthia’s excuse of ‘people mourn differently’ echoed through her mind. And slowly, things were starting to make more sense.

And the more things fell into place, the worse they looked from every angle.

“Cynthia says she doesn’t remember much. I believe her, but…”

“ _But there’s something she isn’t saying_.”

“Maybe I did go crazy, Jazz. If my mom and I were as close as Cynthia is saying, it’s entirely possible that I suffered some sort of mental break. And with the way there’s the theory that strong traits lead to potential abilities and gifts, maybe that’s why I can see the future. I just happened to be the perfect type of crazy for it to translate into future-telling.”

It didn’t feel good to argue against her own sanity, but she didn’t want to think about the possibility that there was something more sinister happening within her family’s past.

“ _I don’t believe that_.” And that had always been Jasper’s stance. He outright refused to believe she’d been mentally unsound as a human. At first, it was something she found comfort in. But now, as she argued against him and in favor of her family’s actions, she was left feeling lost.

Again, the feeling that she was out of place and trying to force herself back into her family, left her highly uncomfortable.

“ _There’s more to this,_ ” Jasper spoke firmly. “ _I know there is. And I’m going to figure it out._ ”

“What if it’s bad?” She whispered. “I don’t know if I want to know if it’s bad.” The confession left her feeling like a coward. It wasn’t something she’d felt in a while. Not since before the war had began.

“ _No matter what the truth is, it’ll come out eventually. I think it’s beneficial if we discover it first before someone else does the right amount of digging in the right places and beats us to the punch._ ”

He was right about that. With the amount of eyes that were on the two of them, it was a matter of time before a journalist or someone investigated her past too accurately.

“ _I learned some news today_ ,” he spoke, shifting the tides of the conversation effectively, and bringing her mind back to the present, “ _Skye is petitioning to end her life_.”

Alice was on her feet in an instant. “What? No! Why?” The news ripped her out of her family drama and suddenly her chest ached for a different reason. “She _can’t_.”

“ _They’re at the final stages of resetting over in Winnipeg. Her and Victoria both. I know you don’t have as much experience with resetting as you do with actual entrances. But it’s part of the process; it’s seen as a privilege to be allowed to be reset. The option is always provided for people who don’t think they can handle returning to the real world. Or_ ,” he sighed, “ _in her case, she’d be entering the real world._ ”

“But last I heard she was doing great and was on track to go to self-control training!”

Despite the girl’s role in the war, and the havoc her ability had wreaked on Jasper (and by association, her) Alice had found herself strangely protective over the soft-faced vampire. Thankfully, she wasn’t alone in this.

“ _I submitted a request to be allowed to speak with her finally_ ,” Jasper spoke, his tone glum. “ _I think I might be able to talk her out of it._ ”

Alice found herself nodding fiercely as she clung to the phone. “Yeah, good. Do that.” Like a handful of radicals under Maria’s thumb, Skye had been one of the few who had been serving against her will. Victoria, the other survivor of that final battle, had been another one. Both of them were gifted, and their gifts had been used for Maria’s benefit.

She knew that Victoria was also en route to be in self-control training next month, too. She also would be serving a much shorter period of time than any of the other radicals. Because like Jasper, she’d already been both in the system and living publicly as a legal, recorded vampire. But, unlike Jasper, she’d been absent for nine census counts in a row. It wasn’t a punishable offense, but it was cause for concern on their end.

The census counts were to ensure vampires lived where they were registered. It was mainly to keep track of them physically, but it was also helpful in ensuring that proper laws were being abided by.

Any vampire who skipped out on their region’s census immediately caused red flags to raise.

Jasper’s willingness to speak with Skye caused Alice to choke up suddenly. She didn’t think he would ever know how truly good he was. This was the girl whose gift had nearly driven him mad, but Jasper knew exactly what she’d gone through under Maria’s thumb. Jasper knew what it was like to be brain-washed into thinking that Maria and her cause were all that mattered. And Jasper wanted to show her that there was still a future for her.

“I think if anyone can help her now, it’s you,” Alice commented softly. “Let me know when they get back to you. If it’s not soon let me know and I’ll see what I can do.”

“ _Keep an eye on her,_ ” Jasper requested. “ _She can’t exactly expedite the process, thankfully. But she’s impulsive. I can picture her doing something foolish._ ”

Alice could, too. If it came down to it, she’d travel to Winnipeg herself and speak with the girl. She’d even go alone if she had to.

They spoke a little while longer before Jasper left to go on a quick hunt with Emmett, who was now back in town. Emmett had spoken to her for a couple minutes, making Alice laugh a few times before they’d parted ways.

As she stared at the phone, it’s blank screen no longer providing her the comfort of loved ones just on the other end, Alice sighed.

It was strange, to be feeling the things she was feeling now, especially with the week she’d had.

She was supposed to be happy. Or at least happier. She was finally meeting her biological family members, learning all about them and their pasts. It felt refreshing to add new people to her mental list of people to check up on daily. The futures of all her family members were bright and happy, full of good things and exciting prospects.

But now, for once in her strange life, it wasn’t the future she was worried about.

* * *

It was when Alice was already driving to Cynthia’s house when the entire plan of the day shifted, veering violently off course so abruptly that Alice was forced to quickly pull the car over to the side of the road.

It appeared Cynthia’s husband, Tim, was back from his work trip.

And he was not happy.

As she focused on the flickering, changing future ahead of her, Alice reached out blindly, pressing the button to turn her hazards on. She waited for a path to solidify itself, before realizing it wasn’t going to. This would be one of those instances were it wasn’t up to her to decide which direction her day would go in.

“Fuck,” she exhaled, focusing on her windshield wipers as they moved from side to side. It wasn’t raining too heavily; just a light shower. Alice knew it would clear up by noon. Reaching over, she turned the radio up a little bit louder.

She felt like she needed something else— _anything_ else—to focus on right now before she ended up bursting into tears.

 _It’s okay,_ she coached herself mentally, _it’s going to be alright._

She didn’t quite know what he was upset about, but Tim’s anger was a visible, certain thing in her mind. And she was positive that it was because of her.

Pressing her hazard button again, Alice flicked her blinker and merged back onto the road, willing her hands not to shake as she drove through the rain. It would be okay. She would introduce herself and hopefully he’d be willing to meet her and get to know her and things would be better.

For a moment she contemplated messaging Cassie on Instagram; surely the girl’s presence would calm her father’s temper a bit. But a quick vision showed her that the presence of any of Tim and Cynthia’s children would make the forthcoming confrontation much, much worse.

He was already on the porch by the time Alice had pulled into the driveway and parked.

He wasn’t much taller than Cynthia. The photos she’d been shown must’ve been older than she thought, because this man was bigger than she’d expected, his hair just a twinge grayer. There was no old baseball hat, or sports team shirt. His tie was loosened around his neck, his jacket coat gone and the sleeves of his button up were rolled to the elbow.

“No!” He shouted when she opened the car door, and suddenly he was barreling toward the SUV, shaking his head furiously. “No, no you are not coming inside of my house. You are not welcome here—”

“Tim!” Cynthia was out the door and running after him. Her face was red and splotchy, her cheeks stained with tears. “Tim stop! Don’t do this!”

He reeled on her, shaking with anger. “Cynthia, get back inside. The leech is not coming in.” He spat the word out, turning toward Alice. When he realized that she was already out of the car, the door closed behind her, it seemed to incite him further. “You are not welcome in my home,” he spoke the words slowly, annunciating each one carefully. “I do not care who you used to be, or who you think you are or you were. You need to leave. Now.”

“Tim, stop! That’s my _sister_!”

“Your sister is dead Cynthia,” he didn’t take his eyes off Alice once, and the amount of hatred this man had for her had Alice rendered entirely speechless. “She is long dead; it’s just another disgusting leech.” He stepped closer to her, still. “You do not step one foot inside my house, you hear me?”

“I hear you,” she spoke firmly. She needed to get through to this man somehow, but she didn’t know where to begin, even with her visions at her disposal. The amount of vitriol he was spewing at her was so baffling. He didn’t know her. He didn’t _know_ her. “But will all due respect—”

“Which is none! You are not deserving of my respect! Filthy fucking blood sucker, endangering this town by just _being here!_ ” Alice watched as he contemplated spitting on her, but decided against it at the last second. “Get out of my driveway now. I don’t care what you supposedly ‘Protect’ but you have no power here. I’ll call the cops if you aren’t gone in thirty seconds. You’re trespassing.”

“Tim, please, hear me out!”

“Cyn, I am not speaking to you until the vamp is gone.”

“I’ll go,” Alice spoke, her voice surprisingly even. Her eyes flickered to Cynthia and her heart broke. “I’ll go,” she repeated, her words directed at her sister. _It’s okay_ , she wanted to say. _I know. I get it_. But she didn’t say anything. Instead, she turned back toward the car and opened the door.

“Wait!” Cynthia shouted. When Alice turned toward the woman she was already running back into the house. “Wait! Just a second!”

With Cynthia gone momentarily, Tim stepped even closer. There was the possibility he would try to lay a hand on her, and Alice didn’t quite know what she would do if he tried. She wasn’t even sure if he was aware of the fact that nothing he could do could make her budge; if anything, he’d end up hurting himself. So while he toyed with his options, his fury a visible thing, he shook. His hands clenched into fists as he stared down at her, contemplating his next move.

He decided on more threats instead.

“If you ever step foot inside my home again I’ll have you arrested for trespassing. You leeches aren’t above the law and I’ll spend my very last breath making sure you know it. You and that murderous parasite you fuck will get what’s coming to you. Mark my words.”

“I hear you loud and clear.” Alice knew there was nothing she could do now. Nothing she could say would sway this man, and no amount of damage control could remedy what had been done. And in just a minute Alice’s entire week shattered, her heart feeling especially heavy in her chest as she climbed back into the car.

“Wait!” Cynthia shouted again, and suddenly she was back outside and standing outside the driver’s side door.

“Cyn,” Tim’s voice was angry as he reached out and grabbed her arm. “Let the leech leave.”

“Here,” Cynthia was holding back sobs as she just about threw the small, teal album at Alice. “It’s yours anyways.”

“Get back inside,” Tim growled, pulling his wife back and away from the car, “now.”

“I’m sorry,” Cynthia cried, and she was sobbing freely in the driveway now. “I’m sorry, Alice.”

But Tim was already pulling her away, still muttering under his breath about filthy fucking bloodsuckers and dirty disgusting leeches. By the time Alice closed the door, the entire inside of the driver’s side was wet.

Alice felt like she was moving on auto-pilot as she pulled out of the driveway. She couldn’t help but notice how a few neighbors were on their own porches, some just watching from windows, trying to see what scene was transpiring in the Holmes’ family yard.

She shouldn’t have felt as embarrassed as she did, but Alice was humiliated. She was a fool, plain and simple. She’d seen what had been coming and had stupidly thought that there was a path she could take that would turn the tides in her favor.

She should have known that something like that would happen. The entire week had already been too good to be true. It was only right that something as awful as this would happen.

Alice felt numb as she drove back to the center, and then past it. And she drove for the better part of an hour before she forced herself to pull into a gas station. The instant she parked the car the dam burst, and she was crying.

She was embarrassed. Humiliated and confused and angry and upset. And above it all she was heartbroken.

Her excitement over meeting Tim had blinded her from the reality of what awaited her. If she’d actually done what she used to, and watched her own future meticulously, she would’ve seen this coming a mile away.

In her desperation for these people to accept her she’d repressed every instinct she’d fine-tuned over the past forty years, and she felt like an idiot.

But this was her _family_. These were people that she hadn’t known existed, but who she’d wanted to know about her entire life. People who she’d forgotten about through forces entirely outside of her control.

Alice knew that this life would provide her with plenty of examples of the different types of prejudice that there were out there, but she never imagined she’d face it so directly from someone she was associated with so closely.

Between those preconceived notions and her own questionable past, it was impossible for some people to look past. Even her own brother-in-law, it seemed.

Opening her phone she crafted a quick message, sending it to her niece’s inbox.

**I won’t be able to say goodbye. I’m sorry.**

Alice was sure the girl would hear about it soon enough. But she’d promised not to leave without saying goodbye. Something told her that was the only goodbye she’d be able to give.

She contemplated sending any more messages, even if to her fellow Protectors. But she was too embarrassed and upset to even send Jasper a text. She knew if he called her she’d start sobbing again. She’d rather tell him what happened in person.

Within the hour Alice had returned the car, gathered her things, hitched a ride to the airport, and now she was waiting to board the first flight out.

Again, the opportunity to send her friends a message, letting them know she would be home soon, presented itself. But instead Alice shut her phone off entirely. She’d be back in Rickett’s soon enough.

Until then, she wanted to forget everything.

She didn’t even let herself enjoy the irony. She boarded the plane, closed her eyes, and decided not to open them until she was home.

She’d face her reality later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Pisces season my little emotional wrecks.
> 
> Now, before you click away: do me a favor and either follow me on my Tumblr (flowerslut) or make sure you're subscribed to me here on AO3. I'll be posting again at some point this week, with a potential announcement. Will it be a new (bonus) chapter to this story or another story entirely? That's yet to be decided. But still: watch this space. *Gestures vaguely to my entire account* Anyways, back to the note.
> 
> Ah, yes. I know many of you called it. But I mean, hey. Not all plot points can be shocking and gasp-inducing. Some details end up being predictable; Alice's visit crashing and burning just happened to be one of them.
> 
> Poor Alice... poor Jasper... poor... *checks notes* Skye? Alright then. 
> 
> The next chapter is a doozy. Brace yourself for that one. But in the meantime enjoy the chapter. And if you want to hear my newest song, you can find that on my Instagram (shutupmaybe). I may or may not have unintentionally written a Maria-esque anthem, but I will accept full responsibility for it, like the saint I am.
> 
> Until next time, take care of yourselves.


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